State regulators have hit UNC with another violation notice for a treated wastewater spill at its animal holding and research facility in rural Orange County.
The March 3 notice comes after broken pipes spilled 1,800 gallons of treated wastewater onto the ground of the Bingham Facility in late February.
It follows an earlier notice and possible fine for a December spill of an unknown amount of treated wastewater into Collins Creek, a tributary to the Haw River and Jordan Lake. In that case, the wastewater leaked from a holding pond, where treated wastewater was stored before being sprayed onto fields.
“Not as serious as the first one, but it is still a failure of their system,” said Jay Zimmerman, environmental program supervisor with the state Division of Water Quality.
“It does seem with UNC every time we turn around, something else is happening out there,” he said.
The Bingham Facility houses about 85 dogs used in hemophilia research and is scheduled for more dogs and hogs under a $27 million expansion plan. We'll have more on this story in tomorrow's N&O.
Comments
There you have it folks
Fri, 03/19/2010 - 07:21 — marcoplosReasonable information in a blog post followed by inane brayings.
Clarifications from UNC
Thu, 03/18/2010 - 06:51 — susanhoustonAs Mark Schultz reports in the longer story in today's News & Observer, the treatment systems that received the notice of violation from DENR have been shut down and remain shut down. UNC shut them down the week of Feb. 22.
As in the previous notice of violation from DENR, about the pond leak that reached Collins Creek, DENR issued the notice because of the method of release involved. UNC's permit allows the operators to spray irrigate the treated wastewater, not to allow water to pour out on the ground or discharge into the creek. A notice of violation does not mean that any contamination of the soil, groundwater or creek has occurred.
UNC informed neighbors and local media about the Feb. 18 leak by e-mail the next day, Feb. 19.
Susan Houston
UNC News Services
Hey, cut it out there!
Thu, 03/18/2010 - 20:29 — elvisboy77Quit mudding things up with statements of fact. We need to have a protest about this and logic and reason will ruin it for us!
Quick, let's form a protest group!
Wed, 03/17/2010 - 19:33 — elvisboy77Maybe we can use the back side of the Airport Protest Signs for our new protest!