Efland Station project

[Cartmill, Matt]

To the Orange County Planning Board members:

In public meetings with concerned citizens, Mr. Stan Beard, Buc-ee's Director of Real Estate, has said a lot of things intended to soothe and calm the fears of landowners and residents in the Efland area. Here are a few of them:

• He says that the Efland Station project will contain not 120 gasoline pumps, but just 60 (each with two nozzles).

• He tells us that Buc-ee's huge underground gasoline tanks will be secure, and that neither they nor spills and drips from all those pumps will ever be allowed to contaminate the groundwater.

• He assures us that the MPD-CZ rezoning that Buc-ee's is requesting "gives the community a say in future development," and "is more restrictive than what's there at the moment."

When he says these things, Mr. Beard misstates the facts. As our Planning and Zoning Supervisor Michael Harvey specifically notes in the report attached to tonight's Planning Board meeting agenda, the proposed Buc-ee's megastation will dispense gas from 120 nozzles, each with its own pump. No container is permanently leakproof, and Buc-ee's tanks will deteriorate and eventually have to be dug out and replaced. And as Mr. Harvey has repeatedly told us, proposed future projects on land governed by MPD-CZ zoning will be reviewed only by him and his co-workers -- not by any other citizens or by elected officials. The community will in fact have no say in future development.

Because of these misstatements, and because of all the spin and omissions in the sales pitches that I have heard representatives of the Buc-ee’s organization make to the neighbors of the proposed Efland Station, I do not trust their claims. In particular, I do not trust their assurances concerning environmental pollution and degradation. I support the urgent concerns expressed in the following:

1. The letter of Oct. 26 from the Eno River Association to the County Commissioners and the Planning Department, observing that the Efland Station development "will surely deposit high levels of sediment, toxic chemicals, heavy metals and other pollutants into our waterways and drinking water."

2. The statement on regolith and aquifer pollution posted on the website of the Voice for Efland and Orange website (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__voice4efland.com_environmental-2Dimpacts_&d=DwIGaQ&c=JRU6Crajf79kKcplUJFHFfpcQ9GkS9xWLut8YRTooJY&r=nTyPXfri6VJzeXVx5Z0oePwHOLNfuxyIjIs9sJ6gi3Y&m=nwKQ7gNgsjS_ESRhXquRHuPckqx4Tbk7gS7ZffKxRbA&s=5CrEjqCoLhvwZ792xDhER3XvnYKTivk1scqDmNthDII&e= ).

3. Mr. Harvey's expressed "concerns over the potential impact(s) associated with the storage of the necessary fuel to support 120 gas pumps." As he notes, "Further review will be necessary, presuming approval, to address environmental impacts of [the] ...proposed travel center" (tonight's agenda package, p. 113).

I ask the Planning Board to take whatever steps are necessary to make that further review — including a formal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and additional public testimony — happen BEFORE, not after, voting on approval of this project. It makes little sense to approve a project of this magnitude first and evaluate it afterward. I urge Orange County's planners to prioritize the legitimate concerns of informed experts on environmental and water quality over the blandishments of a commercial giant with no real interest in our county and its citizens, and to table this proposal pending further review of its impact on the environment.

—Matt Cartmill,
1111 Spike Rd.,
Hillsborough, NC