Dear Mayor Hemminger and Chapel Hill Council members:
We ask that the Town staff follow the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s instructions to develop a Remedial Action Plan in order to evaluate all options for the contaminated Police Station coal ash site. Specifically, we request you not submit a brownfield application before the Town Council, NCDEQ, and the public have had the opportunity to fully evaluate the adequacy of the Remedial Action Plan requested by NCEQ via email on Oct. 3, 2017. On June 25, 2018, the Town Manager confirmed in an email posted on the Town’s coal ash website that the Town would develop such a Remedial Action Plan. However, it is now asking the Council to take action before having a chance to evaluate the plan. The August 20, 2018 remedial alternatives memorandum prepared by Town staff and consultants is not sufficient. {See footnote below.}
Town staff received many comments at the public information sessions this summer advising the Town not to proceed with a brownfield application until other steps are taken to evaluate options that would clean up the coal ash rather than permanently leaving it in the center of Chapel Hill.
In addition, the public comments requested a more comprehensive and careful approach that would:
- Ask the Town to select an environmentally satisfactory solution;
- Answer basic questions about the nature of the pollution problem;
- Strong;y support the town in offering information on all the options to Council and the public:
- Request delay of moving ahead with one option, such as the brownsfield application process, until all the options can be fairly compared and the public has a chance to weigh in. The public meetings this summer were only focused on the brownfield option.
We support the statement expressed at the last public input session that the Town has “put the cart before the horse” in considering future development options before the best environmental approach is decided.
Signed,
Nick Torrey (Southern Environmental Law Center), David Adams, Delight Doner Allen, Mark Antiliff, Catherine Bagchi, Ann Baker, Bonnie Bevan, Bill and Anne Brashear, Kimberly Brewer, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Linda Brown, Debra Buck, N. Helene Carlson, Chris Conerly, Patty Courtright, Wes Dain, Maria deBruyn, Mary Anne DeFir, Munsie Davis, Sonia Desai, Sandy Douglass, Jeffery Elliott, Robert Epting, Debbie and Arthur Finn, Betsey Fortlouis-Farran, Brad Farran, Bev Ferreiro, Vivian Foushee, Dorthy Gerard, Laurel Goldman, Joan Guilkey, Leslie Gura, Johanna M. Grimes, Suzanne and Peter Haff, Matt and Barbara Hapgood, Charles Harris, Susan R. Hester, Mark Hollins, Pam Hoover, Charles Humble, Lib Hutchby, Betsy Kempter, Moyra Kileff, Ellie Kinnaird, Carol Krucoff, Chris Krueger, Fred Lampe, Victor Lancaster PE, Patricia Langelier, Patricia Leighten, Lucy Lewis, Joe Liegl, Alejandro Lizardo, Chris Lynch, Julie McClintock, Molly McConnell, Maurice McDonald, Kathy McGhinnis, Virginia Meldahl, Deanna I. Moore, Ken Moore, John Morris, Christie C. Parrish, Michael Paul, Karl Petersen, Laura Porter, Jeff Prather, Nancy S. Preston, Theresa Raphael-Grimm, Will Raymond, James Rice, M. Roberts, Randall Roden, Pamela Schultz, David Schwartz, Whit Scott, Pat Shane, Nikolai Skiba, Del Snow, Sue-Anne Solem, Carol Marie Stanton, Heather B. Stein, Michael C. Stevens, Ulana Stewart, Janet Tice, David Tuttle, Terry Vance, Robert Vance, Judy Via, James L. (Jim) Ward, Burwell Ware, Diane Ware-Furlow, James Williams, Diane Willis, Erica Wood, and additional signers.
Footnote:
[The August 20, 2018 remedial alternatives memorandum prepared by Town staff and consultants is not sufficient: among other problems, it only looks at one option that would remove the ash to an unspecified location, presumably a landfill. It does not specify available landfill locations or actual transportation costs; nor does it consider removing the ash for use in lined structural fill (offsetting construction costs elsewhere); nor removing only the thickest deposit of coal ash from the 40-foot eroding coal ash cliff alongside the floodplain of Bolin Creek. The Town’s cost estimate for cleanup is currently $112 to $133 dollars per ton of removed ash and soil, but in South Carolina, Santee Cooper is currently cleaning up three coal ash sites and recently stated that its costs are approximately $36 per ton. The Town has not provided information on job creation and the fair market value of the property (and nearby properties) if it remains contaminated versus being cleaned up to unrestricted use standards, so it looks only at the costs, not the economic benefits, of a cleanup–and of course there are numerous non-monetary benefits to cleaning up this contaminated site as well. Finally, the public has not had a chance to evaluate the very limited information the Town has provided so far.]