The University will begin cleaning up a site that has been contaminated with chemical waste since the 1970s later this month.
Parts of Municipal Drive will be closed as Tampa-based WRScompass prepares the site for excavation, expected to be completed by July at a cost of $4.5 million.
There are an expected 18 burial sites in the 0.2-acre waste site located off Municipal Drive on the University's property slated to become Carolina North.
It was used to dispose of waste from the University and UNC Hospitals between 1973 and 1979.
"We're really going to be moving in laterally and excavating those areas one by one," said Larry Daw, an environmental engineer with UNC's Environment, Health and Safety department.
"It is essentially going to be an archaeological dig."
The chemicals were disposed in accordance with state and federal guidelines of the time, he said.
UNC is cleaning the site as part of a voluntary agreement made with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2004 that removed the site from a list of contaminated areas. The deadline for completing the cleanup is 2012.
After site preparations are complete, WRScompass will begin the actual excavation.
The burial pits are between 13 feet and 15 feet deep. The top six feet of soil have been tested and are not contaminated. They will be removed and used to refill the pit once the cleanup is complete.
The next three feet of soil are suspected to be contaminated and will be tested. The soil in the bottom six feet, where the bottles themselves are buried, is contaminated and will be removed.
The excavation process calls for testing and removing each bottle.
"There will be extensive sampling done of all this," Daw said. "Nothing will be put back unless we can document that it's clean."
Some of the bottles might contain potentially explosive materials.
"They didn't pour the stuff down the sink in the '70s because it wasn't safe," said Rodney Swiney, WRScompass' site project manager.
Groundwater cleanup began in 2006 and is expected to continue for the next 20 to 30 years until it reaches state standards, Daw said.
The cleanup efforts will not interfere with UNC's immediate construction plans for Carolina North, which will begin in 2009 at the earliest.
Future construction on the site could be limited, Daw said, because waste might have seeped into the water table beyond the area that will be cleaned. That would not allow buildings with basements to be constructed on the site but would allow for surface construction such as parking lots.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
