The State Department of Environmental Quality plans to hold a public hearing January 16 on UNC's plan to burn plastic and wood pellets at its power plant in downtown Chapel Hill.

The planned hearing is in Hillsborough and is not accessible to UNC students, downtown residents, and anyone who uses public transportation. Students are starting finals and do not return to campus until January 8th. You can read our post about this here.

We call on the North Carolina Department of Enviromental Quality's Division of Air Quality (DAQ) to add an additional hearing on or near campus so that the town and campus community can comment on UNC's plans.

What the issue is

Recently, UNC-Chapel Hill filed for a permit modification for its Cameron Ave. cogeneration plant that would allow it to conduct a year-long test of replacing coal with pellets made from a mix of wood, paper and plastic scraps. An additional appendix included with the application showed the pellets also include varying amounts of PFAS compounds, aka “forever chemicals.” The public hearing notification says: "Based on an analysis of the pellets, the facility would not emit more than 1.2 pounds of PFAS per year."

That is *a lot* of potential PFAS being emitted in our downtown area, in our air, and potentially (once it comes down from the air) in our water supply.

There are lot of reasons to be concerned about this effort, some broad in scope and others very specific. The fundamental change is that the university goes from burning coal to incinerating what some other entity makes of out scrap that would otherwise go to a landfill.

It’s hard to imagine an industrial use more out of character for its location. The community and the university need to have a conversation about that. That conversation needs to take place in Chapel Hill, so students and nearby residents can attend.

Kirk Ross's detailed look at the application, which we've quoted above, notes "In it’s application, the university states that it will continue monitoring for PFAS in the pellets to make sure levels are acceptable. But these experiences tell us that it will also have to monitor emissions, a much more complicated process."

What are PFAS?

PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they basically never go away once they’re introduced into an environment. We know that they may be harmful to human health, and the EPA introduced new regulations last spring that mandate water utilities must adhere to strict requirements related to PFAS. (Chapelboro has a good writeup of a recent briefing we gave legislators on our community and PFAS.)

Additional reading

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. "Public Hearing Scheduled for UNC-Chapel Hill Cogeneration Facility Air Quality Permit Modification." NC DEQ, 4 Dec. 2024, https://www.deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2024/12/04/public-hearing-scheduled-unc-chapel-hill-cogeneration-facility-air-quality-permit-modification. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

Murawski, John. "UNC-Chapel Hill Seeks to Burn 'Alternative Fuel' Pellets Instead of Coal." The News & Observer, 22 Aug. 2024, https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article291760490.html. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

Ross, Kirk. "Burning Plastic and Paper Is No Solution to Ending Coal Use." Carolina Mercury, 12 Sept. 2024, https://carolinamercury.com/2024/09/12/burning-plastic-paper-no-solution-to-ending-coal-use/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

"Burning Plastic Pellets at UNC: An Update from Last Night's OWASA Meeting." Triangle Blog Blog, 13 Sept. 2024, https://triangleblogblog.com/2024/09/13/burning-plastic-pellets-at-unc-an-update-from-last-nights-owasa-meeting/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

"UNC Just Filed a Permit to Burn an Alternative to Coal: Here's What We Know." Triangle Blog Blog, 27 Aug. 2024, https://triangleblogblog.com/2024/08/27/unc-just-filed-a-permit-to-burn-an-alternative-to-coal-heres-what-we-know/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.