AQ_GEN_PIO_20250109_MISC_PressRls

Jan. 9, 2025
REMINDER: Public Hearing for UNC Chapel Hill Cogeneration Facility
Air Quality Permit Modification to be Held Jan. 16
RALEIGH – The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air
Quality (DAQ) is accepting public comment and will hold a public hearing on a draft air
quality permit modification for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
cogeneration facility.
The public hearing will be on Jan. 16. Public comments will be accepted until Jan. 23.
Public Hearing on University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Date and Time: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, at 6 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.)
Location: Chapel Hill Town Hall
Address: 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Chapel Hill
If attendance at the public hearing reaches capacity, an overflow room will be set up to
allow additional members of the public to watch the public hearing remotely.
UNC’s cogeneration facility, at 575 W. Cameron Ave. in Chapel Hill, Orange County,
currently burns coal and natural gas to produce electricity and steam for use at the
Chapel Hill campus. The facility is classified as a major source requiring a Title V air
quality permit.
The university is seeking to modify its permit to allow it to also burn engineered pellets
in its boilers. UNC would be allowed to burn a mix of coal, gas and pellets, and says it
will be evaluating the pellets to determine if they could be a suitable replacement for
coal.
The pellets are manufactured by the company Covergen and consist of byproducts from
packaging and label industries. The pellets are not considered solid waste. The new
pellet fuel is expected to reduce emissions of particulate matter and sulfur dioxide while
increasing emissions of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide. There would be no
physical changes to the boilers.
Because the pellets have been shown to contain small amounts of per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the draft permit would require UNC to perform
regular sampling of the pellets for PFAS and test its boilers to determine actual PFAS
emissions. Based on an analysis of the pellets, the facility would not emit more than 1.2
pounds of PFAS per year.
DAQ conducted air dispersion modeling for this application, which demonstrated that
the facility’s emissions of toxic air pollutants are expected to comply with all applicable
standards and would not cause an exceedance of any acceptable ambient level. The
draft permit would require UNC to continue to operate all control devices including filters
and injection systems and continuously monitor its emissions of particulate matter,
nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. The facility would be subject to recordkeeping and
reporting requirements and regular inspections.
Copies of the public notice, draft permit, draft permit review, permit application, draft
environmental justice report, and a one-page project fact sheet are available online.
The public is encouraged to attend the upcoming hearing and provide comments on the
proposed action. Sign-up will be available upon arrival. Oral comments at the hearing
should be limited to three minutes or less. Written comments may also be submitted
during the hearing.
Comments on the project can also be submitted by email to
[e-mail] with the subject line “UNC.24A” or by leaving a
voicemail at 919-707-8448. Comments can also be mailed to:
NCDEQ Division of Air Quality
1628 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1628
The public comment period ends on Jan. 23, 2025. DAQ will consider all public
comments before making a final decision on the proposed permit.
If you need this information in Spanish or another language, please call 919-707-8446
or send an email to [e-mail].

For More Information
Contact: Shawn Taylor
Phone: [phone]