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Durham must stop poisoning Jordan Lake

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Staff

Julian Sereno

Something is rotten in Durham, and much of the rot seems to be ending up in Jordan Lake. It’s time to put a stop to it.

It began way back in the early ’90s when Walmart wanted to build a store near the intersection of I-40 and U.S. 15-501, a few miles from Chapel Hill and smack-dab next to New Hope Creek. The Durham City Council had consistently protected the watershed and thwarted Walmart. But when it came to a vote in 1992, Virginia Engelhard, a Durham City Council member and avowed environmentalist, mistakenly voted for it rather than against it. She claimed she was tired and just pushed the wrong button. It sounded fishy to me at the time, but the powers-that-were in the Herald-Sun newsroom, where I was employed, took her at her word.

New Hope Commons was built as a result of that vote. It features not only a Walmart but a Best Buy, Old Navy, Office Max and more. And it paved the way for another mall on the other side of Mount Moriah Church Road and a goliath mall across U.S. 15-501 featuring scores of big-box stores.

All this commercial development led to a vigorous revenue stream pouring into Durham’s tax coffers. I remember the business editor in the mid-’90s chortling about the many Volvos he saw parked at New Hope Commons, which he surmised belonged to wealthy Chapel Hill residents leaving their sales-tax dollars in Durham.

All this commercial development’s hundreds of acres of parking lots have also led to a toxic stream pouring into New Hope Creek and on into Jordan Lake. When the state legislature enacted rules to protect Jordan Lake last year, the tab for Durham to curb its pollution was way higher than anywhere else – $570 million. Durham was granted compliance waivers because of the staggering expense. But Durham allowed that pavement to be laid, profited mightily, and now needs to pony up to keep its poisonous run off out of New Hope Creek and Jordan Lake.

The rotten business continues. In October, the Durham Board of County Commissioners voted 3-2 to allow construction of a large subdivision, 751 South, inside the Jordan Lake watershed, after being threatened with a massive lawsuit by the developers. But a petition representing 24 nearby landowners opposing the development was ruled valid. If that ruling stands, the development would be stopped. The vote to allow it would need a supermajority, or a 4-1 vote in favor, which it won’t get.

The petition will have its day in court – probably many of them. Durham taxpayers ultimately might be the big losers, which is too bad. But Durham has to stop pouring filth into our drinking water, and it needs to stop now.

Julian Sereno is editor and publisher of Chatham County Line, chathamcountyline.org, a community newspaper. He was neighborhood editor for the Durham Sun and then the Herald-Sun from 1985 to 1997.

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