Media representatives are invited to attend a briefing next week about the clean up of a chemical waste disposal site on property near the Horace Williams Airport that is owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The University, its environmental consultant and its remediation contractor will also present the information at a public meeting following the media briefing.
Wednesday (March 5)
3:30 p.m. media briefing
5:30 p.m. public meeting
Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Building, Room 2202
1120 Estes Drive Extension, Chapel Hill
In preparation for remediation of the site, design and engineering consultant Arcadis Inc. prepared the clean-up investigation plan and the design and oversight of installation of a groundwater remediation system. WRScompass, the remediation contractor for the project, will prepare the site and install temporary fencing around the perimeter. Because the fencing will block portions of Municipal Drive, the Carolina North Forest Management office has moved temporarily to a building on the south side of Municipal Drive, and the public will be rerouted to gain access to the Orange County Animal Shelter and some recreation trails. New signs have been installed to make these changes clear to the public. Excavation of the site is scheduled to begin by the end of March, and restoration of the site should be completed by August.
Carolina used the 0.2-acre site between 1973 and 1979 to bury laboratory chemical waste generated by the campus and what then was N.C. Memorial Hospital, using accepted and legal disposal methods of that era. The University obtained authorization to dispose of waste at the site from the state government authority overseeing waste disposal at that time. The site does not appear on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund national priority list.
The University is remediating the site as part of a voluntary program with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), in which Carolina agreed in 2003 that its clean up of the source of the contamination would be completed no later than eight years after signing the agreement. Groundwater remediation will continue until it is completed. Under the agreement, the public has been notified about the remediation plan; citizens will have opportunities to share their comments and ask questions at the March 5 meeting.
Environment, Health and Safety contact: Larry Daw, (919) 962-6666, JLDAW@ehs.unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu