http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/npl/nplnc/ncst86nc.htm

For years NCSU buried all their laboratory and hazardous waste just east of the football stadium. It is now an EPA "superfund" site. Rather than clean it up, they just made sure everyone nearby uses city water rather than wells.

Just a little tidbit to think about next time you're tailgating.

There are only a handful of these designated sites in Raleigh. One is the notorious Ward transformer company that made fish in every stream in Raleigh unsafe to eat(they couldn't dump any more PCB's on their own property so they let it leak from trucks as they drove around town). Another is a fertilizer dump just across Lake Wheeler Road from the Farmer's Market and Centennial Campus that is "time critical". Yum!

Map: http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/sf/state/r4superfundnc.kmz

[Edited on October 2, 2011 at 9:01 PM. Reason : More about Ward transformer: http://raleighnature.com/2008/08/13/ward-transformers-crime-never-stops]

10/2/2011 8:58:11 PM

Thanks...

10/2/2011 9:30:01 PM

i saw the article earlier and had figured they were talking about the football program

10/2/2011 9:37:53 PM

we actually talked about this in class last Wednesday

The only two things i really remember are that there is basically a little bit of everything out there and that animal carcasses range in size from small rats to whole sheep

[Edited on October 2, 2011 at 9:41 PM. Reason : ^ lol]

10/2/2011 9:40:48 PM

^^.

10/2/2011 9:42:04 PM

Wow. The site across from the Farmer's Market apparently dates back to 1892. A warehouse and chemical factory for nearby Caraleigh Mills burned, dumping 8 million pounds of sulfuric acid into the ground!!!

" The Caraleigh Phosphate and Fertilizer Warehouse southwest of Raleigh was destroyed by fire on Aug 19, 1892. Discovered just after dark in the acid chambers, a "mammoth structure" measuring 250 feet long and 60 feet high, the blaze began in a burner room used for making sulfuric acid. Several fire department members responded and assisted, though they were unable to take their apparatus outside of the city limits. The company, located past the Insane Asylum on Asylum Road, had a $5,000 water system with seven hydrants and a pump. After the pump became disabled, the firefighters relied on gravity-fed pressure from the 10,000- gallon tank on top of the manufacturing mill. By 9:30 p.m., the entire structure was in ruins. The entire building and its contents were destroyed, with an estimated $25,000. 98

Over 4,000 tons of sulfuric acid spilled onto the ground during the fire and likely soaked into the water table. Seven years later, problems with the city water supply were reported. During a special meeting of the Board of Alderman on Mar. 10, 1899, the Committee of Physicians reported that water supplied by the Caraleigh Phosphate Mills was contaminated. They cited the cause as either the 1892 fire or the tipping over of a large vat in 1898. The physicians reported that the contaminated water was in their opinion "injurious to health, and unfit for domestic use" and while "causing disordered digestion and bowel disturbances" was not necessarily "dangerous life." They recommended that the city's water supply pipe running through that area be relocated a safe distance from the contaminated area."
http://www.legeros.com/ralwake/photos/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=4150


http://cfpub.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/cactinfo.cfm?id=0407686

The EPA found "levels of lead and arsenic that exceeded removal action". Nonetheless they sent in their spacemen and removed several thousand tons of soil in 2006. Apparently the current owner, Chamco II, Inc/Southern Roofing and Metals Company got the shaft and settled by paying $130,000.
[link]http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:u3XwCKZm950J:<a href="http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/sf/images/nplmedia/pdfs/caraleighphfertncaoc07272011.pdf+epa+section+107+caraleigh&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiYtfvzS-b_RUTAww9bYwR9p69NXRFA8ddp-YMsqBdX5vpQ5E5lPwupaXchsCJ8-wUr2-tsUqH1S_m4M-O2x1VPbrTEz4IWTuCJklyKEL4eRwaEf7kP2DZgpNqPb3t5SsTGd0xj&sig=AHIEtbT6NKb4saZJedfQOJCtQxKnu_8OlA[/link]" target="_blank">http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:u3XwCKZm950J:http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/sf/images/nplmedia/pdfs/caraleighphfertncaoc07272011.pdf+epa+section+107+caraleigh&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiYtfvzS-b_RUTAww9bYwR9p69NXRFA8ddp-YMsqBdX5vpQ5E5lPwupaXchsCJ8-wUr2-tsUqH1S_m4M-O2x1VPbrTEz4IWTuCJklyKEL4eRwaEf7kP2DZgpNqPb3t5SsTGd0xj&sig=AHIEtbT6NKb4saZJedfQOJCtQxKnu_8OlA</a>



[Edited on October 2, 2011 at 10:10 PM. Reason : .]

10/2/2011 9:45:08 PM

[Edited on October 2, 2011 at 10:18 PM. Reason : IC is going to love this shit]

10/2/2011 9:54:58 PM

OLD

10/2/2011 11:16:09 PM

Yes, 1892.

Lot 86 is north of carter finley, not east as I said.

And I'm aware of a similar dump site elsewhere on campus that would have mercury and lead off the charts, but my lips are sealed.

[Edited on October 2, 2011 at 11:31 PM. Reason : .]

10/2/2011 11:27:08 PM

I thought everyone was aware of this?

The levels of hazardous waste are pretty negligible by now with the remediation efforts that have been going on.

10/2/2011 11:41:09 PM

The university stalled for a decade, then only began real efforts in the past ten years. They failed an EPA inspection last year and I think the pumping is to continue for several decades more.

10/3/2011 12:01:59 AM

You're actually more likely to die from a bullet than from toxic waste in that lot.

10/3/2011 12:12:04 AM

Quote :

"They failed an EPA inspection last year"

I'd be curious to read more about this, because the 2008 review (latest document on the EPA website) reads as though things have progressed fairly normally...the former dumping area is enclosed by a fence adjacent to the CF parking lots, the soil has been mixed, stabilized and capped, and the groundwater is being extracted and treated.

Quote :

"Rather than clean it up, they just made sure everyone nearby uses city water rather than wells."

This, too:

Quote :

" Major cleanup elements for the site included: -In-situ mixing and encapsulation of contaminated soils. The treatment may include, but is not limited to, liquid vapor separation, prefiltration for dust and particulate removal, followed by parallel activated carbon filter banks. -Extraction of ground water contaminated above remediation goals specified in the ROD. -On-site treatment of extracted ground water with air stripping and carbon adsorption. -Discharge of treated ground water to surface water or a local publicly owned treatment works. Remediation of the soils was completed in October 1999, and construction of the ground water remedy was completed in September 2006. Ground water treatment is ongoing, and the treated ground water is being sampled on a monthly basis, assuring it’s compliance with the discharge limits set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. "

Quote :

" The remedies at the Site are currently protective of human health and the environment in the short-term as the main source of contamination was remediated through in-situ mixing and encapsulation of contaminated soils; groundwater contamination is actively being remediated through extraction and treatment; and currently no human exposure pathways exist to contaminated soil and/or groundwater. "

5-year review: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/fiveyear/f2008040002499.pdf

and about the Caraleigh site...

Quote :

"The EPA found "levels of lead and arsenic that exceeded removal action". Nonetheless they sent in their spacemen and removed several thousand tons of soil in 2006."

Nonetheless? What else were they supposed to do?

10/3/2011 12:14:13 AM

http://www.raleighpublicrecord.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/water_qualityNE.swf

Correction, they received TWO violations, one in 2008 and another in 2009. The site contains at least 37 contaminates and one of the top 5 most hazardous substances. The cleanup is very much "ongoing" and will likely continue for decades.

It's also interesting that the university spent 2.5 million dollars cleaning up the steam plant diesel spill on main campus in 2009.

[Edited on October 3, 2011 at 12:42 AM. Reason : .]

10/3/2011 12:40:37 AM

Quote :

"i saw the article earlier and had figured they were talking about the football program"

ahahahaha

10/3/2011 8:26:05 AM

Quote :

"You're actually more likely to die from a bullet than from toxic waste in that lot."

10/3/2011 10:02:43 AM

Quote :

" It is now an EPA "superfund" site"

Says record of decision was 1996.

[old]

10/3/2011 11:37:28 AM

Ongoing.

10/3/2011 11:52:14 AM

not related to ncsu but isnt there a big dump site over by crabtree also?

10/3/2011 12:12:41 PM

Yeah it's called Crabtree Valley Mall.

10/3/2011 12:14:23 PM

The Ward transformer site flows directly into Brier Creek and Crabtree Creek.

10/3/2011 12:16:19 PM

I assume all posts/threads by smc are exaggerated and sensationalized beyond reason and summarily disregard them.

I encourage everyone else to do the same.

Literally anyone else's thoughts and opinions are worth greater consideration on the topic.

[Edited on October 3, 2011 at 12:21 PM. Reason : .]

10/3/2011 12:21:05 PM

Quote :

"I assume all posts/threads by smc/pryderi are exaggerated and sensationalized beyond reason and summarily disregard them. "

10/3/2011 12:24:32 PM

http://www.newsobserver.com/2006/06/28/49269/costly-cleanup-at-ncsu.html#storylink=misearch

10/3/2011 12:28:54 PM

Quote :

"University officials carried out the first phase in 1999, mixing 2,200 tons of cement in the ground with the contamination to try to stabilize it. The effort was intended to stop more chemicals from leaking into the groundwater. University officials sought to avoid the expense of pumping and treating groundwater. They asked for time to demonstrate that the contamination would biodegrade naturally. "It isn't that we didn't want to do this," said Duane Knudson, manager of environmental affairs at N.C. State University. "It's just that we didn't want to get into a long-term pump and treat system that wasn't ever going to result in a cure. We were trying to avoid writing checks every year for a system that wasn't going to accomplish its cure." "Basically, they [the EPA] lost their patience and wanted it done," Knudson said. "I do, too." Michael Townsend, project manager for the EPA, said the site had been studied for more than 20 years, and the pump and treat method outlined 10 years ago had been delayed for years at the request of the university. "We gave them an opportunity to see if natural attenuation would work out there," Townsend said. "To date, it's been unsuccessful. You can study and study and keeping studying. It's time to go ahead and get it done." "

Seems like the EPA and the university worked out an agreement and have been following through with it. Not all that nefarious.

10/3/2011 12:32:37 PM

i, for one, am no longer going to root for grubs in the dirt near carter-finley

10/3/2011 12:33:44 PM

^^ "delayed"..."study and study and keep studying"..."EPA lost their patience"...

Not to mention the nefariousness of knowingly burying dangerous chemicals in a shallow pit for decades.

As mentioned above, the university is still receiving yearly citations for not meeting cleaning goals.

They could pump and filter for lifetimes and still not get all this stuff out of the water table.

They paid a trifling fine as well.

10/3/2011 3:35:50 PM

You do realize in the 50s and 60s everyone just dumped hazardous waste into unlined pits right? After awhile people started realizing that disposing of waste in that manner wasn't a great idea and the government began regulating it. It sucks this site exists but the university was doing nothing illegal at the time of disposal.

10/4/2011 8:29:38 AM