UPDATE April 23, 2024: No response yet to our November 2023 FOIA request for details on Alberdingk Boley’s wastewater spill into Bull Run (water supply stream), but a second Brownfield site has been approved for development consideration along this same short stretch of Gate City Boulevard: a 17-acre concrete plant and transport facility.
There’s a lot more data about the contamination in groundwater and soil assessments for the site, a former Fortress Wood Products operation addressed at One Metals Drive in a spotty zoning mashup that’s part Jamestown, part Greensboro. Fortress Wood Products is owned by the listing realtor, The Lester Group of Martinsville, Va.
South of the Fortress/Silvi Concrete site, also uphill from and parallel to Bull Run, is German resin/chemical manufacturer Alberdingk Boley. Alberdingk Boley also sits on part of a 65-acre Brownfield site – a former Burlington Industries textile factory:
On November 14, 2023, Alberdingk Boley, which has a front door address in Greensboro, NC, but sits in and discharges/emits to Jamestown’s groundwater and air, spilled 6,000 gallons of something. A year earlier, it spilled at least 16,000 gallons into Bull Run. Details HERE.
All of Jamestown lies in the Randleman Critical Water Supply Watershed The information in the integrated data reports provided by the NCDEQ to the EPA mislabel Bull Run as an “Aquatic Life” (instead of water supply) stream. Images and details HERE.
The Alberdingk Boley/Burlington Industries “Brownfields” property is uphill from the southeast corner of the D.R. Horton Kinsley development.
From an August 2006 letter to the NC Department of Environmental Resources regarding the site:
“A stream flows through the north end of the property from east to west. Drainage on the northern, wooded end of the property is toward this stream. Drainage from the west portion of the property appears to flow into a stormwater drainage structure. A stream also flows through the southern portion of the property, from east to west, and drainage on the southern portion of the property generally flows toward this second stream. THE TWO STREAMS CONVERGE WEST OF THE SITE AND FLOW INTO BULL RUN CREEK.“
From the notice recorded at the Guilford County Register of Deeds, Book 5989, page 2647: Groundwater contaminants include arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, thallium, zinc, acetone, benzene, chlorobenzene, chloroform, 1,4 dichlorobenzene, 1,1 dichloroethene, 1,2 dichloroethane, ethylbenzene, tetrachloroethene, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, xylenes, trichloroethene, vinyl chloride, naphthalene, antimony. Soil contaminants include acetone, tetrachloroethene, ethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, xylenes, isopropyl benzene, trichloroethene, napthalene, 2-butanone, 1,1,1-trichloroethane.
Also sitting in the 65-acre Burlington Industries Brownfield, next door to Alberdingk Boley, is the Guilford Technical Community College Advanced Manufacturing facility. This next set of public documents concern these properties when their former addresses were 6012 and 6008 High Point Road (now Gate City Blvd).
Two fast food restaurants were planned on the Gate City Blvd side of the GTCC property, across the street from Publix. One has been completed. The other withdrew its plans. Soil dug from the completed restaurant site was moved to another location on the GTCC property.
The properties are subject to annual inspections to make sure no further contamination is taking place (no soils disturbed, no construction, etc).
When GTCC built a driveway on its property in 2014, the Army Corps of Engineers held it to strict protections to ensure the soil wasn’t stirred up.
More on the contamination, from an August 24, 2006, letter (link is in the lineup below):
AZAS’ pre-purchase due diligence investigation has confirmed that groundwater contamination above North Carolina’s 2L standards exists on the site. The confirmed contamination on the site has impeded the sale or redevelopment of the property. The Guilford County Development Office identified at least two other potential purchasers for the site. Environmental Contamination was the primary reason that one company chose to pass on the site, and contamination played a role in the decision of the other.
The site is presently owned by DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses North Carolina LLC which purchased the site in October 2004. The site is located near Guilford Technical Community College and New Guilford College Road, in Jamestown.
A stream flows through the north end of the property from east to west. Drainage on the northern, wooded end of the property is toward this stream. Drainage from the west portion of the property appears to flow into a stormwater drainage structure. A stream also flows through the southern portion of the property, from east to west, and drainage on the southern portion of the property generally flows toward this second stream. THE TWO STREAMS CONVERGE WEST OF THE SITE AND FLOW INTO BULL RUN CREEK.