CHAPEL HILL -- State officials served UNC-Chapel Hill with a notice of violation after treated wastewater at its animal holding facility in western Orange County leaked into a creek feeding Jordan Lake.
It was the second of three wastewater spills at the Bingham Facility, commonly called The Farm because it houses animals used in research on the university's main campus.
The first, 630-gallon leak did not trigger a notice because the wastewater did not reach Collins Creek, a tributary of the Haw River, which in turn flows into Jordan Lake. That spill, Nov. 18, came from pipes that separated and was contained to the soil.
The December spill came from a leak in the liner of a storage pond where treated wastewater is stored before being sprayed on the site. UNC has constructed a sump to collect the discharge and pump it back to the pond. Eventually the pond will be emptied and the water in it hauled to the Orange Water and Sewer Authority while the liner is fixed, said Mary Beth Koza, director of UNC-CH's Department of Environment, Health & Safety.
State officials could not estimate how much treated wastewater leaked into the creek. UNC-CH does not know when the liner started leaking, according to a letter from Larry Daw, a geologist in the Department of Environment, Health & Safety.
An underground drainage system is discharging about 1 gallon per minute, but that discharge likely includes groundwater, the letter said.
A third leak, of "maybe 100 gallons," occurred last week when piping in the spray irrigation system did not work properly and treated wastewater seeped into the soil, Koza said.
The university has planned a $27 million expansion of the Bingham Facility, located off Orange Chapel Clover Garden Road in Bingham Township.
The 57-acre site has about 60 research dogs, UNC-CH officials said in December. A building under construction will add 100 dogs that are currently housed near Hillsborough. The new building has been designed to add 100 dogs when funding is secured.
At the same time, the university has applied for federal stimulus money to move dogs and pigs at the Frances Owen Blood Research Laboratory near University Lake in Carrboro to Bingham.
If the money comes through, new buildings could house up to 150 additional dogs - for a total between 400 and 450 - and up to 150 hogs.
