The Chapel Hill Town Council recently met to discuss the future of the site at 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. This site is the current location of the Chapel Hill Police Station, but it is also the location of a coal ash fill. Since the town learned of coal ash existence on the project in 2013, the town council has been discussing the future of the 828 MLK site.
In the 1960s and 1970s, construction debris and coal combustion products were placed on the 828 Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard site and the site was later used as a borrow pit. In the 1980s, the Town of Chapel Hill acquired the property and built the town police station located there now. In 2013, coal ash was discovered on the property leading to discussions about what comes next.
Mayor Pam Hemminger spoke with 97.9 The Hill about the site and explained why the town cannot just take out all of the coal ash.
“Digging it up and carting it with trucks out of here actually puts people at risk with your exposure to that,” Hemminger said. “Its interesting to learn about the Brownfields and the risk assessment that if you put three to five feet of dirt on top of coal ash and then you cap it with concrete like a building, parking lot or side walk its considered safe at that point.”
The Brownfields Program refers to underused properties because of the threat of potential environmental contamination. It sets standards for how the state government can work to redevelop those sites following the department of environmental quality.
Hemminger said part of the plan with the 828 MLK site is to build a larger building for the police department and other government services as well as use the site for affordable housing. A memorandum of understanding or MOU with the Belmont-Sayre development team would allow for a concept plan of the redeveloped site.
While many of the council members were in favor of moving forward with the MOU, Adam Searing disagreed saying he was disturbed at the idea.
“I would certainly not plan to move my family and my kids and reside on top of this coal ash dump,” Searing said. “My suspicion is that most people on this call would not be willing to move their kids onto this coal ash dump. Everybody has to make that decision for themselves, obviously. For me, if I am not willing to do that, then I don’t think that we should be willing to ask other residents of the town to do that.”
Town staff said describing the site as a coal ash dump is inaccurate. The 828 Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard location has coal ash fill in it – which Council member Michael Parker said would be safe for commercial projects like apartments once the site is remediated.
“I think that, trying to paint this as something that we are telling people or asking people to do that, which we would not do ourselves, I don’t think is really helpful,” Parker said. “I feel completely comfortable that we can and will both in the short and in the long term, continue to make this a safe site with, as you know, our team has told us, not low levels, not safe levels, but zero levels of coal ash exposure.”
Council member Camille Berry echoed Parker saying she believes the council should move forward with the MOU on the site.
“I don’t think we have sufficient information to abandon this project,” Berry said. “There is enough merit for us to look further. As to the question of, ‘Would we live there?’ I will tell my esteemed colleague that I haven’t had the privileges that you’ve had of choosing always where to live. I do think deeply about where I live and where I put those who are in my care, where they live.”
The council was set to vote on the MOU at its March 9 meeting, but moved those conversations to its March 16 meeting.
Photo via Town of Chapel Hill
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