Big Stink Over Asphalt 

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"How can it be morally or ethically wrong to generate jobs and employ people and create a tax base for the city in an already industrialized area?" counters Chris Ferebee, president of the Ferebee Corporation, the company that plans to open the asphalt plant next month. "How is it morally wrong to want to run a business on land that you own and have paid taxes on for decades? In Charlotte, there are several other asphalt plants that have similar proximity to residential areas. So to say we're an abnormality is not true. I find it hard to take criticism from people who don't know what they're talking about. We've met repeatedly with them (Williams and other concerned Optimist Park residents) and tried to educate them, but for whatever reason they've chosen not to listen."

Ferebee points out that his company's asphalt plant meets all zoning as well as state and federal environmental requirements. It's his opponents, Ferebee says, whose plans contradict what's intended for the neighborhood.

"What the opposition is proposing is non-conforming use," he says. "What they want (residential and retail development) does not follow the zoning plans. People are making it sound like I'm putting an asphalt plant down in the middle of a neighborhood. That couldn't be farther from the truth."

Ferebee's view fly directly in the face of what city councilman James Mitchell, whose district includes Optimist Park, says he wants for the area, "Clearly, Optimist Park does not need an asphalt plant when it's already got so much industrial development," says Mitchell. "We're trying to reverse that trend."

A Hunk-a Hunk-a Burning Asphalt

North Carolina has about 78,000 miles of roads, and the second-largest state-maintained highway system in the United States. In addition, about 4,400 miles of roads are repaved each year. That's a lot of pavement; thus, the state has a lot of asphalt plants. According to the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), North Carolina has about 150 asphalt plants. On average, about five new facilities are permitted each year. There are 12 plants in Charlotte, spread throughout the city, including Westinghouse Blvd, Sam Newell Rd, Mallard Creek Church Rd, and one in Southend.

Contrary to what folks might think, most modern asphalt plants are not mammoth buildings with multiple towering smokestacks. In fact, many asphalt plants are portable so they can be moved to different locations based on needs for new highways and other construction projects. The plant slated for Optimist Park will consist of several different components that all fit together like a puzzle. Ferebee says most of his plant's components will stand less than eight feet off the ground, with the exception of one 44-foot silo. The plant will be located at the intersection of N. Davidson and 13th Streets, with ancillary development along N. Caldwell.

The asphalt mixing process goes like this: Bins containing an aggregate of gravel and sand will feed into dryers where the mixture will be heated to over 300 degrees. The material is then moved into drums where it "s mixed with liquid asphalt. The "hot mix" asphalt is then conveyed into storage silos, from where it "s poured into trucks, and delivered to construction sites. Hot mix asphalt plants normally are located close to construction sites since delivery trucks can travel only limited distances and still maintain the asphalt temperatures needed for paving.

Before a company can build, operate or modify an asphalt plant (or any other source of air pollution), it must first obtain an air quality permit. Locally, Mecklenburg County Air Quality (MCAQ) issues those permits. MCAQ is a regulatory agency certified by the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission to administer federal, state and local air quality regulations.

"When someone applies for an air-quality permit, they have to present us with sophisticated air quality modeling," says Alan Giles, communication coordinator for MCAQ. These models are created by taking emission figures which have been established across the country, and then inputting how much the facility (in this case an asphalt plant) will produce, to come up with an expected emissions rate. "The model must show that the operation of the plant is not going to have a negative affect on air quality and prove it will be below federal emission standards, which the Ferebee plant has done."

What is startling is that as long as they pass the air quality model test, there is no required buffer zone between asphalt plants and residential areas. This is not a statewide rule. NC allows each city to determine its own buffer requirements. In keeping with its longtime progressive stance on the environment, our city officials just opted not to have them.