NNS - BOCC - Memorandum to UNC-CH Planning Panel from Rosemary Waldorf dated 3-16-95 - 4-3-95 - XI

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UNC-CHAPEL HILL PLANNING PANEL Environment/Ecology Goals and Principles, Cont'd. Sensitive Features Conserve natural resources and energy to protect sensitive features of the natural environment. Sensitive features include shrink-swell soil, slopes greater than 15%, water quality and air quality. • Approximately 40%of the Mason Farm property lies within the 100-year flood plain (with occurrence of several soil series including shrink-swell), which means that an even greater amount is included in the Town of Chapel Hill RCD,thus restricting opportunities for development. • Exemplary populations of Catawba rhododendron(Rhododendron catawbiense) occur on steep (in excess of 10%),north-facing bluffs along Morgan Creek and deserve protection. • Consider the limits of expansion of the OWASA Treatment Plant at Mason Farm and the related impacts to neighboring land uses. • Golf course management issues relate directly to water quality ("... an average of 18 pounds of pesticides were applied per treated acre each year, contrasting to the average of 2.7 pounds applied on agricultural lands. There is the additional heavy use of fertilizers."from "How Green Are These Fairways?" -Audubon magazine, Sept-Oct 1993. "... water-between 500,000 and 800,000 gallons a day per course, according to the National Golf Foundation."from"Charting A New Course" -National Wildlife magazine,Aug-Oct 1993.) This concern can be turned into an opportunity (the U.S. Golf Association currently funds $2 million a year in environmental research, etc.). • Address the current and long-term safety of University generated, low-level radioactive waste that is temporarily stored at the: — Hazardous Materials Facility (located near the intersection of Airport Road and Estes Drive Ext.), and — CHYDARU("shad-a-rue's complex and the radioactive animal burial site (located on north side of Morgan Creek,near Friday Center).