CHAPEL HILL -- UNC-Chapel Hill has paid a $15,000 state fine for leaking treated wastewater from its animal research facility in rural Orange County into a nearby creek.
The university was ordered to pay the fine and investigative costs, for a total of $16,612.48, for a leak from a storage pond at its Bingham Facility. An unknown amount of treated wastewater, likely containing very low levels of nitrogen and fecal coliform, seeped into Collins Creek, which feeds the Haw River and eventually Jordan Lake.
The university could have sought a reduced fine or challenged it in court.
In a letter Tuesday to the Division of Water Quality, Associate Vice Chancellor Bob Lowman said the leak and a spill of treated wastewater from broken pipes "have been painfully embarrassing to the University because we strive to assure that our practices are environmentally sound."
The university has since begun hauling wastewater off site for treatment as it designs a new system. The new system will reclaim treated wastewater for irrigation, use in cooling towers and other purposes. Lowman said reusing the water should minimize any effect on neighboring wells, which some residents had feared as the facility expands.
UNC-CH recently received a $14.5 million grant through the National Institutes of Health to expand the facility, which will use dogs and hogs to study hemophilia, muscular dystrophy and cardiovascular disease.
