DEQ's Brownfields Agreement includes revisions from community feedback

On Dec. 30, 2024, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality issued a Brownfields Agreement to the Town of Chapel Hill concerning the redevelopment of the property at 828 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, which currently houses the Chapel Hill Police Department.

The property was initially the site of a borrow pit from the 1950s to early 1960s which was later filled with coal ash and other materials, including construction and demolition debris. The Town purchased the property in 1980 and the police station was later constructed in 1982.

According to the Town, the materials were discovered in late 2013 and the DEQ was quickly notified.

The draft agreement from the DEQ included revisions to the initial drafts that incorporated feedback provided by community members during the public comment period, which began in July 2024. 

Edits included clarifying the definition of “recreational use” in the agreement to only list options that are actually being considered for the property, including sports-related courts and fields, walking space or an amphitheater. Options that are not feasible for the site, like playgrounds, have been removed. 

Increases in property productivity, the creation of hundreds of temporary construction jobs and expanded use of public transportation were also listed final agreement as some of the potential benefits that could result from redeveloping the property.

However, some community members feel the lasting environmental implications outweigh the potential benefits that come with the plan and these revisions. 

16 community members spoke at the public meeting on Sept. 18, 2024, to discuss the Brownfields agreement. Among them was Shiva Rajbhandari, a founding member of Sunrise UNC, who still has concerns about the future development of the property. 

“You can see coal ash coming out of the ground when it rains," he said.“There's no chance that's not seeping into the water system and I think, you know, just disturbing that land.”

With the site so close to the Bolin Creek Trail and the greenway, Rajbhandari said development on the site not only poses serious threats to future construction workers but also UNC students and Chapel Hill residents who regularly use the trail. 

He said he would like to see the property sealed off properly or cleaned up entirely. 

According to reporting from NC Newsline, completely removing the coal ash from the property would cost over $11 million, which does not account for the cost of demolishing the existing police department building at the site. The current plan to cap and seal the materials would cost over $4 million. 

Nick Torrey, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said he has been advocating for a real plan to clean up and stabilize the site for the last 10 years. The current revisions made by the DEQ, he said, did not change anything of substance.

“The core issue is that this agreement, just as it was proposed in the summer, does not require them to clean up one ounce of coal ash and it allows them to leave it all there, leave all the pollution there,” he said.

Friends of Bolin Creek Co-President Julie McClintock said there was a period of time when the Town was expanding the greenway next to the creek and recognized the potential for coal ash to be dug up during construction. She said the concern that it would roll into the creek and harm the safety of pedestrians led the Town to remove about 1,000 tons of ash. 

Torrey said the situation showed how the Town does have the ability to remove the coal ash and that removal is the appropriate solution with coal ash problems. 

“One of the big arguments that has been cited by the Town and others through this process has been, ‘We can't do this because it's too hard,’” McClintock said. “‘It'll be harmful to the community to remove it.'" 

This all-or-nothing approach to removal, Torrey said, is not the only solution. He said there are targeted areas of coal ash that could be removed, which would make a huge difference to improve the usability of the property and its long-term safety. 

In an email statement to The Daily Tar Heel, Alex Carrasquillo, the media relations manager for the Town, said Town staff members are currently in the process of reviewing the draft Brownfields Agreement to determine what their next steps will be. He said this will involve staff, council and community input about the future of the property.

McClintok said community members should attend these hearings once a permit has been granted. 

“That's the opportunity to raise the same concerns and [to] try to get a safer way of building this — which it is not going to fundamentally be safe,” she said.

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