Hillsborough delays asphalt plant action

HILLSBOROUGH -- About 125 people packed a Hillsborough Board of Adjustment meeting Wednesday night, but the nearly four-hour public hearing ended with no resolution on what brought them there: a proposed asphalt plant southeast of town.

It was the board’s third meeting in three months on Bahama resident Doug Robins’ proposed plant on five acres along Valley Forge Road. Robins owns Durham-based Asphalt Experts Inc.

About 30 people, most of them opposed to the plant, signed up to speak, but only a third of them were able to do so. The board agreed to continue the hearing until April 30.

Ken Redu, an environmental toxicologist for the state Division of Public Health, said there could be harmful health effects from a plant located 500 to 1,000 feet from homes.

"If it was 3,000 feet away from the nearest residents, we wouldn’t even be talking," he said.

Hillsborough resident Richard Silverman, who presented a PowerPoint presentation, said the plant would be located one-quarter of a mile from a mobile home park. A quarter-mile is 1,320 feet.

Durham resident John Schelp said he met an asthmatic boy named "Timmy" riding his bicycle at the mobile home park.

"Our neighborhoods, our schools, our quality of life, our health and our children are too important," Schelp said. " For Timmy’s sake, please vote against this noxious asphalt plant."

The plant would also be about 100 feet away from Orange Enterprises, a nonprofit that provides vocational jobs and training to residents with disabilities.

Orange County, which owns the land that Orange Enterprises is on, opposes the plant and sent Planning Director Craig Benedict, County Engineer Paul Thames, Erosion Control Officer Reyn Ivins and Sean Borhanian, assistant to the county attorney, to Wednesday’s meeting.

Thames said it doesn’t appear that the asphalt plant would be able to meet the noise ordinance requirements. He said pollutants would also travel offsite to nearby neighborhoods.

When questioned by Borhanian, Ivins said it would be hard to quantify the amount of pollutants but "obviously it will be adding contaminated water to Cates Creek."

Phil Post, a Chapel Hill engineer hired by the applicant, said it would not.

Sue Regier, who works with the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, submitted a list of rare species in the Eno River basin that she said would be harmed by pollutants emitted from the plant.

Lou Zeller told the board not to rely on state organizations to monitor air and water quality issues effectively.

"Local governments have sole responsibility for locating industrial facilities," said Zeller, who works for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

He cited two North Carolina asphalt plants that have caused problems. But Robins’ attorney Gray Styers said in one of those cases a judge struck Zeller’s testimony from the record after his law firm objected.

George Lucier, a toxicologist asked by Orange County officials to give a presentation, said asphalt plants emit five known cancer-causing chemicals. He also advised the board to consider cumulative risks.