CHAPEL HILL, N.C.— The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition requesting that the agency investigate whether the town of Chapel Hill’s coal ash dump should be cleaned up under the national Superfund program. The contaminated property at issue in the EPA’s Jan. 12 decision is surrounded by housing, businesses and wildlife habitat.

The investigation’s timing is crucial due to newly emerging science on coal ash’s health hazards. In October 2023 the EPA released a draft revised risk assessment for coal ash that found increased cancer risks from exposure to radioactive elements and arsenic.

“This Superfund investigation needs to incorporate the EPA’s own recent findings showing dramatically increased cancer risks from pollutants that are prevalent in Chapel Hill’s ash dump,” said Center staff attorney Perrin de Jong. “I urge EPA to take the time needed to integrate those crucial facts into its response to our petition. The agency needs to use the most up-to-date science to protect public health and the environment from this toxic contamination.”

Approximately 60,000 cubic yards — roughly the equivalent of 46 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s toxic coal ash was dumped in a large pit at 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard over several decades. The town later bought the property and built the police station and Bolin Creek greenway on site.

Formerly buried, the coal ash has reached the surface of the property. Soil, water and sediment tests conducted on the property and in Bolin Creek indicate that the surrounding environment has been contaminated with heavy metals and radioactive material. These laboratory tests have revealed elevated levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and hexavalent chromium, as well as radioactive material such as radium in the environment around the ash dump. All these pollutants are constituents of coal ash.

Bolin Creek drains into Jordan Lake, which is the drinking water source for 1 million people. Bolin Creek is also part of a watershed occupied by a federally protected species — the threatened Atlantic pigtoe freshwater mussel. These mussels face the threat of extinction in part because of heavy metal and chemical pollution in their habitat. This watershed is one of the last two places in the Cape Fear River basin where the mussel can still be found.

The Center’s petition seeks the EPA’s help in conducting the full removal and cleanup of the coal ash dump. Superfund is a federal program that guides and supports cleanup or remediation of sites contaminated with hazardous materials.

The cleanup is urgent as the town of Chapel Hill plans to redevelop the site without removing the coal ash dump in the near future, the Center’s petition notes. Cleanup will protect local residents, local wildlife and recreational users of the Bolin Creek greenway from soil and water contamination. It will also offer protection from the large amount of airborne coal ash that is likely to blow around during demolition, grading and construction.