Storyline
How UNC’s new coal-fired power plant on Cameron Avenue, approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council in 1986 to replace the 1940 plant, drew complaints from its neighbors over noise, dust and light and citations and fines from state regulators as it was tested in 1991 and 1992.
In briefIn 1986 the Chapel Hill Town Council approved UNC's $96 million coal-fired power plant on Cameron Avenue to replace the 1940 plant. As it was tested in 1991 and 1992, the Power Plant Neighbors complained of noise, dust and light, the council asked for action and monthly reports, and the state cited the plant for wastewater and emissions violations and fined the University nearly $43,000. In 1993 six neighbors sued and the state fined the plant $123,670 for 1992 air violations. In 1994 UNC settled the suit for $47,000 and an easement limiting the plant's noise, and the town manager gave it a year to finish noise and ash controls.
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No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on UNC expansion and neighborhood change.
In 1940 the University built a steel-frame heating and power plant with brick walls at 503 West Cameron Avenue. In December 1975 residents near the coal-fired plant woke to find everything covered with soot; a state environmental field manager said the unfiltered plant was violating visible-emission rules, and the University planned a $2.25 million bag-house filter. On June 23, 1986, after hearings at which neighbors objected to noise, pollution and 275-foot stacks, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to give the University a special use permit for a $96 million coal-fired plant to replace the 1940 plant between Cameron Avenue and McCauley Street. The conditions required coal to be handled under cover, a better exterior and town approval for any added boiler. Work began in 1988.
In June 1991 the state fined UNC $5,000 for excess pH and iron in the plant's wastewater, and on October 2 the N.C. Division of Environmental Management notified the University of 44 violations of wastewater temperature limits during the spring and summer, with discharges into a tributary of Morgan Creek reaching 140 degrees against a limit of 89.6. On October 9, at a forum requested by the Power Plant Neighbors, a group of residents living near the plant, residents complained of noise, dust and the night glare of the glass-walled building and spoke of a possible lawsuit. Tom Grisham, the University's special projects director, said the problems came from testing and should end by mid-December. On October 28, acting on Town Manager Cal Horton's report, the council unanimously asked the University to act at once on noise, dust and light, to meet regularly with neighbors and town staff and to report to the council each month. Planning Director Roger Waldon said UNC had clearly broken its 1986 permit by not reporting violations within seven days.
On November 15 the Division of Environmental Management cited the University for failing 10 of 16 permit requirements at the new plant, four of them failed air-emissions tests. On November 19 insulation on a fuel pipe in the No. 7 boiler caught fire during the first test of the plant's new fuel system, and plant employees put it out before fire units arrived; the plant, still under construction and already late, had had a minor fire in the summer. On December 2 state officials cleared one of the cited items and said the other nine could bring fines of up to $10,000 a day and a civil suit.
On January 6, 1992 the Power Plant Neighbors met University officials over noise from the tests. Vice Chancellor Ben Tuchi promised to bring the noise within the town ordinance and to hire an acoustics consultant. By mid-February the group had hired Chapel Hill attorney Robert Epting to step up pressure on noise and light, saying the pollution-reduction plan was more than a year behind; plant ombudsman Martin O'Brien said an acoustical engineer would recommend noise measures within a month. On May 8 the UNC Board of Governors voted $22 million in revenue bonds for the plant, $6 million to finish its replacement boiler and cogeneration plant and $16 million to expand chilled water capacity for new South Campus buildings. That month the state told UNC the plant might have violated emission standards and record-keeping rules, with possible penalties as high as $10,000, and the Power Plant Neighbors pressed vice chancellors Gene Swecker and Wayne Jones about sulfur emissions, round-the-clock noise and lights, and coal dust from the coal pile. In September 1992 the Division of Environmental Management assessed the University $42,992.54 in civil penalties for emissions violations in the last three months of 1991, and also cited two 500,000-gallon petroleum tanks built without a permit. The Power Plant Neighbors said the University had promised strict monitoring months earlier.
By February 1, 1993 six residents of the mostly Black neighborhood around the plant had sued the University, charging that it had ignored their complaints about pollution and noise because of who lived there; plant superintendent Raymond DuBose said the site had been chosen in 1939 because the railroad, an electric substation and the steam tunnel met there. On May 10 coal began smoldering in storage, and plant workers and the Chapel Hill Fire Department held it with carbon dioxide. On September 2 UNC told the Power Plant Neighbors it had hired Burns and McDonnell of Kansas City to design sound enclosures for the coal silos, wastewater pumps and coal conveyors. On October 13 the Division of Environmental Management fined the University $123,670.53 for breaking its air permit between April and December 1992; plant officials said the violations, from mistuned boilers and a faulty emissions monitor during startup, had been corrected. On January 30, 1994 UNC paid the builder, Tyger Construction Co., $8.45 million to settle its claim for $41 million more, bringing the plant's cost to about $88.2 million. On April 14 officials promised the neighbors fan silencers, acoustical enclosures, new lights and tree planting, though residents said loud noise came far more often than promised, and on May 27 Town Manager Cal Horton gave the University until June 9, 1995 to finish noise abatement and an acceptable ash enclosure. On June 9 Judge Gordon Battle signed the order distributing $47,000 that UNC agreed to pay six neighbors and a partnership off Merritt Mill Road in return for a permanent easement limiting the plant's noise. In September the state cited the plant after it failed, in July, a toxicity test required by its new wastewater permit.
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Background reading on UNC expansion and neighborhood change. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Brian Burns's collection of lesser-known episodes from Chapel Hill's past, published by The History Press of Charleston, South Carolina, in 2023. Topics include the town's history, its buildings and structures, and the history of civil rights in Chapel Hill. 158 pages with illustrations and portraits.
A history of the buildings on the University of North Carolina campus by John V. Allcott and JJ Bauer, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 2019. It follows campus construction from the 1790s forward: the plans behind each building campaign, the architects, and the university figures who pushed projects through. 132 pages with photographs, maps and plans.
Deed transcripts for the town lots of Chapel Hill and adjoining land from 1790 to the 1930s, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway. Each transcript keeps only the working facts: grantor and grantee, price, acreage and the metes and bounds of the parcel. Self-published in 2014 as Issue 1G, 702 pages with maps and facsimiles.
David R. Godschalk and Jonathan B. Howes describe the ten-year building program that reshaped the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, when some six million square feet in new buildings went up and a million more of historic buildings were restored. Chapters treat the campus master plan, siting and design decisions, the historic north campus, the southeast and health-sciences precincts and the planned Carolina North research campus, with contributions by chancellors James Moeser and Holden Thorp. Published by UNC Press in 2012, 175 pages.
Margaret Ruth Little-Stokes's survey of Chapel Hill's town and campus buildings from 1795 to 1975, published by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill in 2006. Chapters run from the first campus buildings through David Swain's romantic campus to midcentury modernism, followed by area surveys of the campus, east and west Chapel Hill, downtown, Northside and the suburbs.
A pocket-sized guide to the historic buildings and landmarks of Chapel Hill, prepared by the Chapel Hill Historical Society and printed by Creative Printers in 1973. Forty pages with illustrations and maps, 14 by 22 cm. Topics include architecture, historic buildings and historic districts in Chapel Hill, and the guide is useful for a walking tour of the older parts of town.
Planning study by the Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission, November 1969, setting out alternative patterns of land use for parts of the Chapel Hill Planning District and the town's surroundings. Topics include city planning and urban renewal. The 78 pages come with 70 pages of plates, mostly maps, and the work had federal urban planning assistance.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Land use inventory of 1962 and general plan to 1980 for Chapel Hill, Carrboro and their surroundings, prepared by the Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission for the Chapel Hill planning board and published in 1963. Funded through a federal urban planning grant under Section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954, it runs 149 pages with nine leaves of plates and folded maps, some in color.
John V. Allcott's history of the architecture of the University of North Carolina campus across two centuries, from the first buildings of the 1790s to the 1980s, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1986. A 108-page illustrated survey with a bibliography. Allcott taught art history at the university.
A 2008 study of the tree landscape at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published by the university and dated November 2008 on page four. Topics include the history of campus planning at Chapel Hill, landscape architecture and its environmental aspects, landscape protection and plant conservation. One hundred fifty five pages with color illustrations, maps and plans.
Kemp P. Battle's University Day address of 1883, delivered as president of the University of North Carolina on the day marking the laying of the Old East cornerstone. Battle goes building by building through the Chapel Hill campus, telling how each was named and why it stands where it does. Fifteen pages. Electronic edition issued 2005 by the UNC University Library for Documenting the American South.
A 2005 collector street plan for southwest Durham County and southeast Chapel Hill. It addresses street networks, land use, transit and sustainable development.
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