Last month's announcement of a ground lease for land around PNC Arena reminded me of a lost memory from my childhood. Lot 86, a 1.5-acre parcel hidden between N.C. State's Football practice fields have a secret. One that most people who pass by it will never know.
From 1969, just three years after the opening of Carter-Finly Stadium. Until February of 1981, North Carolina State University used the lot to disregard hazardous waste generated by the university's scientific and agricultural research labs. Over an eleven-year period, N.C.S.U. dug approximately twenty-two trenches. Normally ten feet deep, the trenches could range from 50 to 150 feet in length.
Solvents, pesticides, heavy metals, acids, and low-level radioactive waste were dropped into the trenches to be forgotten by time. - Though it wouldn't happen. - Some of the waste was contained before being disposed of. While other waste was simply poured into the trench and covered with soil. Radioactive waste mostly consisted of animal carcasses ranging from rats to sheep. N.C.S.U. stopped dumping chemical waste in the trenches in November of 1980 to comply with federal regulations. The final radioactive waste deposit was made three months later in February of 1981.
A state inspection in 1983 brought the attention of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Based on the State's findings the EPA believed that lot 86 should become a national priority and be labeled as a Superfund site. According to the agency's website, designating the 1.5-acre lot as a Superfund site "allows [the] EPA to clean up [the] contaminated site. It [could] also force the parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work."
While plans for a new basketball arena east of the site gained popularity in the 1980s N.C.S.U. found itself under federal investigation for its actions throughout the 1970s. In a letter sent in December of 1984 N.C. State's Vice Chancellor wrote on behalf of the university. The Vice-Chancellor disputed the state's findings, claiming that the state's evaluation was not accurate to the facts of any environmental impact.
"We therefore respectfully request that our site be removed from the National Priorities List. We find no basis to conclude that the site poses a significant threat to public health, public welfare, or ·the environment," they wrote.
In reality, their claims were false. The study done by the North Carolina Division of Health Services of the on-site groundwater in June 1983 showed active hazardous substances. Including Carbon, Tetrachloride, Chloroform, Methylene, Chloride, and Trichloroethane. Estimates at the time said that 3,898 people in the area could be actively consuming contaminated drinking water.
N.C.S.U. agreed to a consent decree and for almost forty years the university, EPA, and state regulations have worked to contain any contaminates by installing wells to collect and analyze groundwater moving from lot 86.
This was the cover of Raleigh's New & Observer nine days after the Hurricanes became Stanley Cup Champions on the other side of Peter Karmanos Jr Drive. It was also the first time I ever heard of the Superfund site hidden behind the loudest house in the NHL.
I want to stress that the site doesn't pose any current health or environmental risks. A report from the City of Raleigh last month said the lot was in compliance. This story is just another part of the weird history of the building Caniacs call home.
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