A community meeting will be held this afternoon to discuss the Blue Ridge Plating Superfund site off Glenn Bridge Road in Arden. The meeting is scheduled for 5:45pm at the Skyland Fire Department at the intersection of Miller Road and Hendersonville Road.
The meeting will address perceived failings of Environmental Protection Agency officials to disseminate information to area residents concerning polluted groundwater around the site, and what residents can do to access public records regarding the magnitude of contamination and proposed clean-up efforts.
The Blue Ridge Plating Company, located at 171 Glen Bridge Road, has a long history of violations of federal and state environmental laws dating back to its opening in 1974. The company, now closed and under federal supervision, was cited for improper disposal of waste water involved in its operations, which contained high levels of cadmium, chromium and cyanide among other heavy metals.
According to an EPA report from 2008, Blue Ridge Plating was accused of “not meeting pretreatment requirements” of the contaminated water, and variously discharging polluted water into the municipal sewer system as well as directly into the ground at the facility site between 1985 and the early 2000s. In 2005, the BRP site was added to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites, which outlines contamination areas that warrant further investigation.
More information on the Blue Ridge Plating Superfund site can be found here. Details on the community meeting this afternoon are below, per the Buncombe County Politics Facebook page:
THIS JUST IN FROM TATE MCQUEEN, VERY IMPORTANT!!!
“Can you please send out an announcement tomorrow that there is a community meeting regarding Asheville’s other SECRET SUPERFUND SITE at Blue Ridge Plating off Glenn Bridge Road.
The meeting is for 5:45 at the Skyland FD, 9 Miller Road where it intersects with Hendersonville Road, on Thursday, April 2nd.
This is an NPL site, with lower income working class families living without the benefit of EPA telling them what is going on, how bad the site is and keeping the records from the public.
Sound familiar?
We are going to be providing information and sharing a little about what was done at CTS to us and how they can avoid the same pitfalls with the same EPA officials-”
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