RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) – Dozens of students and Chapel Hill residents gathered to protest the continued operation of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s campus co-generation plant, calling for an end to the use of coal and citing health risks, environmental injustice, and the university’s unmet climate goals.
The demonstration, organized by the Sunrise Movement at UNC-Chapel Hill, began at Granville Towers and ended outside the Cameron Avenue Co-Generation Facility. The plant, which provides steam and electricity to the university and UNC Hospitals, uses a combination of coal and natural gas. Kiersten Hackman, spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement, says this decades-old facility is at the center of long-standing environmental concerns.
“We’ve talked to residents in the neighborhoods that the coal plant is located right in between and these residents have been complaining for decades that they’re seeing health impacts of the coal plant that have been dismissed by the university,” said Hackman.
The Sunrise Movement has joined forces with other student organizations, including the Student Environmental Action Coalition and No-Coal UNC, to collect and analyze data on local air quality using monitoring equipment positioned in nearby neighborhoods.
“We know that the coal plant emits air pollutants that are four-to-six times the legal limit of the EPA due to a permit that they have from the NC Department of Environmental Quality and we are looking at the actual air pollutants in the area using air pollutant monitors,” said Hackman.
Organizers say these emissions are contributing to both local and regional pollution.
“Right now it is posing probably one of the biggest threats to environmental injustice in the Chapel Hill community with both the coal plant itself as well as coal ash that it has produced,” said Hackman. “We know that the University of North Carolina is contributing to this history of environmental injustice.”
According to environmental advocates, leftover coal ash—a byproduct of coal combustion—was used as fill material during construction of several buildings in Chapel Hill, including the current site of the police department. Concerns have been raised about the potential leaching of heavy metals from this material into the surrounding environment. Hackman says a lot of communities on campus have had diplomatic meetings with campus officials about these issues.
“What we’ve seen in those meetings is that they’re not really aware of the blueprints of their own University whereas students have done the research on public records of whether geothermal would be a valid solution, whether electrodes would be a valid solution. And the department meets our requests with ‘would cost too much’ or ‘that doesn’t work for our infrastructure’ or ‘that’s not the best solution,’” said Hackman.
Community concerns have long been overlooked despite consistent reports of respiratory issues and other health problems. Organizers hope their ongoing research will help validate these claims and push the university to take action.