Former Schrader Bellows / Parker Hannifin plant · DEQ ID NCD002591014 · Brownfields 07029-03-092
The True Story About the Costco Site on Capital Blvd
The Poison. 40 years of toxic solvents in the ground, and it's still moving
The Greed. Millions in development profit, zero cleanup accountability
The Inconvenient Truth. The documents they'd rather you didn't read
They knew.
For four decades, the ground beneath 12415 Capital Blvd has been saturated with some of the most dangerous industrial solvents known — trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, compounds linked to cancer, kidney failure, and neurological damage. The chemicals seeped into the soil. They dissolved into the groundwater. And they kept moving.
The company knew. The regulators knew. The town of Wake Forest knew.
In fact, the town didn't just know — the town owned it. The Industrial Development Corporation, created by Wake Forest commissioners, held this property for decades. Contamination was documented as far back as the 1980s. And yet in 2006 — with a known toxic plume already mapped beneath the site — the IDC sold the land to a private developer for $2.9 million, pocketing $2.2 million for the town's own Futures Fund.
A futures fund. Built on poisoned ground.
Now, nearly twenty years later, another developer is cashing in — this time with a Costco, thousands of daily visitors, and construction workers breaking ground over an active contamination zone. No full cleanup required. No federal Superfund designation. No public hearing that put the contamination record front and center.
Just a brownfield agreement, a developer's check, and a vote.
This is not a conspiracy theory. This is the documented record.
The reports are public. The chemical readings are real. The plume is mapped. And the question that nobody in a position of power seems willing to answer is simple:
If this site were in their neighborhood — would they have voted the same way?
But this isn't just about paperwork and plume maps.
These are real neighborhoods. Real families. Real people who lived and worked within blocks of this site for decades — breathing the air, drinking from wells, raising children on streets that sit directly above contaminated groundwater. TCE doesn't stay buried. It volatilizes. It moves. And the cancers it causes don't announce themselves with a warning label.
We don't yet have a full accounting of how many people in this community have been diagnosed with kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or the other diseases linked to long-term TCE exposure. That accounting has never been done. Nobody ordered it. Nobody paid for it. Nobody cares.
Your neighbor's diagnosis may not be a coincidence. It may be a consequence.
And then there's Costco.
Costco didn't stumble onto this site by accident. They came for the land — cheap, available, and conveniently pre-zoned. A brownfield parcel sitting on a major corridor, in a fast-growing suburb with disposable income. From a real estate standpoint, it's a perfect deal.
For Costco, it's a business decision. For the people of Wake Forest, it's something else entirely.
Costco has said nothing meaningful about the contamination. No public statement. No independent environmental review. No commitment to worker health monitoring. No engagement with residents who raised concerns. The community spoke — in public comments, on social media — and the response from one of the world's largest retailers was silence. Not reassurance. Not transparency. Silence.
Now consider who actually pays the price:
The construction workers who will break ground, excavate, and disturb decades of settled contamination — stirring up TCE-laden soil, releasing vapors, working in trenches cut through an active plume. OSHA limits exist. Site controls may be required. But controls are only as good as the oversight enforcing them, and nobody is watching the way they should be.
The employees who will clock in every day, park in that lot, breathe the air above that slab, spend eight hours in a building built over contaminated ground. Many will be young. Some will be pregnant. None of them will have been told the full history of what's beneath their feet.
The customers — your neighbors, your parents, your kids — who will fill those aisles every weekend, loading up on bulk groceries and household goods, completely unaware that the warehouse they're shopping in sits on one of North Carolina's documented contamination sites.
And the products? The building materials, the packaging, the food stored in a structure built over a volatile organic compound plume? The science of vapor intrusion — TCE rising through soil and concrete into enclosed spaces — is not speculative. It is documented. It is studied. And it is exactly why federal guidelines exist for buildings constructed over contaminated sites.
Costco got a bargain. The community got the risk.
That's not a partnership. That's not economic development. That is corporation GREED, using a town's desperate need for tax revenue as cover to build on land that a more scrutinizing market would have never touched.
This record compiles the state's own files, recorded deeds and the Town's published history of the 30.5-acre plant on Wake Union Church Road at Capital Boulevard. It covers what is in the soil and groundwater, where it is spreading, what the Town of Wake Forest knew and when, and what is planned for the land now. Each claim links to the document it comes from.
19,100 µg/LHighest TCE in groundwater, June 2025. State standard: 3 µg/L
~1,000 ftDistance southwest of the boundary where TCE above standards was found
1985State Consent Order; TCE found in groundwater while the Town's IDC owned the land
$1.92MParker's approved cleanup cost estimate, cut from $3.41M in June 2026
Key findings from the records
There is no final cleanup remedy, 41 years after the Consent Order. DEQ said so in May 2025 when it refused to clear most of the site's soils.
The plume is not fully mapped and has left the property. DEQ told Parker in June 2026 that TCE above standards was found about 1,000 feet southwest and 100 feet west of the boundary, and that Parker must prove it is not theirs. Groundwater above standards also extends north under off-site land toward Horse Creek, a stream that feeds Falls Lake.
The new plan changes the yardstick rather than the groundwater. Parker's August 2026 addendum proposes relocating the compliance wells and altering the permit's groundwater standards to achieve a "risk-based" cleanup, backed by land-use restrictions on the plant and four neighboring parcels. The 2006 agreement had required remediation until those wells met state standards.
The Town's own corporation owned the land the whole time, and the Town was put on written notice. The Town Clerk signed for the brownfields notice package in April 2004, two years before the Town-created IDC sold the land; DEQ wrote to Town staff in 2019 and to the Town Manager in 2023.
A commercial building and a fuel center are being planned on the plant land. DEQ approved the sampling plan on October 8, 2026, and a contract memorandum with Goodwinco Acquisitions has been on record since December 2025.
The land cannot be used for homes, schools or daycares. The recorded agreement limits it to commercial uses and requires every building to keep vapors out.
Records current through November 5, 2026. Compiled from public records for residents; not legal or medical advice. See method and limits.
01 · Orientation
The site at a glance
Address
12415 Capital Boulevard (Wake Union Church Road frontage), Wake Forest, NC 27587
Size
30.5-acre plant tract; about 64 acres with the adjoining townhome and apartment parcels
VCP Wake Union LLC, Atlanta (since September 2022)
Prospective buyer
Goodwinco Acquisitions (memorandum recorded Dec 1, 2025)
Main contaminants
Trichloroethene (TCE) and its breakdown products cis-1,2-DCE and vinyl chloride; PCE; 1,4-dioxane; chromium and arsenic in soil
Receiving water
Unnamed tributaries A1, A2, B and C → Horse Creek (Class C, WS-IV water supply) → Falls Lake
Schematic of the plant and its neighbors, not to scale. Road positions follow the official parcel map below; directions and distances come from the 2025 monitoring report and DEQ's June 2026 letter.
Official map from Parker's August 2026 plan: the plant (blue), the TCE contours in orange, and neighboring parcels color-coded by the restriction proposed for them. Pink areas would get groundwater and vapor restrictions; tan parcels are where access "has been attempted but not approved." Select to enlarge.
02 · Background
Site history
When Wake Forest College left for Winston-Salem in 1956, the town lost its economic center. In 1964 town commissioners created the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to sell bonds, buy part of the Jenkins farm, build a factory and lease it to Schrader Bros., a maker of pneumatic and hydraulic equipment. The rent paid off the bonds in 20 years.
The plant, later run by Scovill as the Schrader Bellows plant and then by Parker Hannifin, treated plating wastewater through two unlined sand filter beds from 1964 to 1986 and cleaned machined parts with the solvent trichloroethene (TCE). A 1985 Consent Order with the State closed the beds and required monitoring wells; those wells found TCE in the groundwater.
When the bonds were paid off in 1984, the Town Board declined to take the property itself, preferring to keep collecting property tax, so the IDC kept ownership. Most manufacturing stopped in December 2001. On June 2, 2006, the IDC ended Parker's ground lease and sold the land to developer Jim Adams's St. Ives 220 Commercial for $2.9 million, the same day the Brownfields Agreement was recorded. The proceeds, about $2.2 million after fees and claims, became the Town's Futures Fund.
Twenty years of redevelopment attempts
2010–2012
Wake Union Place
Upscale shopping center approved in January 2011 after a court appeal. Developers Weingarten and Interface walked away before buying land; Adams's lender foreclosed in 2012.
2017
Sporting-goods store
63,000 sq ft store on 7 acres. DEQ approved the environmental plan in July 2017. Never built.
2018–2019
Rialto housing
300 apartments and about 90 townhomes next to the plant. Rejected twice by the Planning Board; withdrawn in 2019, two months after DEQ's warning letters.
2022–2026
Wake Union (VCP)
193,000 sq ft commercial, 300 apartments, 89 townhomes approved in July 2022. As of July 2026, none of the homes were built; the apartment site was halted by a stop-work order in 2025.
2024–now
Costco proposal
Reported in September 2024; Goodwinco memorandum recorded December 2025; DEQ-approved sampling for a new building and a fuel center, October 2026.
The records do not show cleanup costs killing these projects. Under the 2006 agreement Parker, not the landowner, pays for cleanup, and the developer "shall not be required to conduct active remediation." The documented causes are the 2008–2012 recession and foreclosure, planning-board rejections, and DEQ's 2019 warnings about off-site contamination.
03 · Timeline
Chronology of events, 1956–2026
04 · Data
What is in the ground
Parker's June–July 2025 sampling found eight volatile organic compounds above the permit's groundwater standards. TCE exceeded the 3 µg/L standard in 44 wells, peaking at 19,100 µg/L in recovery well RW-4, with 15,400 µg/L at MW-4 and 10,800 µg/L at PMW-2D. Vinyl chloride, which forms as TCE breaks down, exceeded its 0.03 µg/L standard in 20 wells, up to 2,900 µg/L.
How many times over the state standard · highest June 2025 result ÷ NC 2L groundwater standard, log scale
Soil: the 2003 baseline in the Brownfields Agreement
Medium
Compound
Location
Highest
Standard
Groundwater
TCE
POC wells, July 2003
5,300 µg/L
2.8 µg/L
Groundwater
cis-1,2-DCE
MW-6, July 2003
770 µg/L
70 µg/L
Soil
TCE
SWMU-31 drum storage, Oct 2002
160 mg/kg
0.053 mg/kg
Soil
Chromium
Sample 35-20a, June 2002
143 mg/kg
30 mg/kg
Soil
Arsenic
Sample 35-20a, June 2002
4.71 mg/kg
4.4 mg/kg
Source: Brownfields Agreement, paragraph 7 . The 2003 and 2025 peaks come from different wells and are not a like-for-like trend.
TCE contours, June 2025 (3, 100 and 1,000 µg/L). The outer line reaches north under the St. Ives subdivision toward Horse Creek. TCE in the four compliance wells since 1989. Concentrations fell two to three orders of magnitude after 1992, were flat or rising 2004–2014, and have dropped and rebounded after each treatment round.
05 · Migration
Where it is going
↑ North, under homes, toward Horse Creek
The plume above 100 µg/L is about 1,100 by 325 feet, oriented north–south. Above the 3 µg/L standard it extends "to the north underlying off-site areas." DEQ's 2018 fact sheet says contaminated groundwater "has migrated north and discharges into Horse Creek."
↙ Southwest, about 1,000 feet
TCE above standards was reported about 1,000 feet southwest of the boundary, on the Kearney Road apartment parcel, and about 100 feet west. DEQ said the plume "has not been fully delineated in the southwest direction" and that Parker must show the off-site TCE is not from its site. The apartment developer's plan calls the source "unknown" and names a former dry cleaner as another possibility.
↓ South, toward the self-storage building
TCE above the standard extends "towards the southern boundary of the Site." In April 2026 DEQ rejected Parker's reasons for discarding soil-gas data near the self-storage property and required more sampling, noting that parcel has no land-use restrictions.
The path to Falls Lake
Plant groundwaterTCE up to 19,100 µg/L
Tributaries A1, A2, B, CUnnamed streams on and near the site
Horse CreekClass C, WS-IV water supply
Falls LakeDrinking-water reservoir
Parker's 2026 plan states Horse Creek "directly feeds Falls Lake" and that the perennial tributaries carry the same water-supply standards. TCE, PCE and vinyl chloride are its surface-water contaminants of concern. The tributaries were last sampled in August 2018, when several locations were dry. DEQ's fact sheet reports that the tributary crossing the original facility has occasionally exceeded surface-water standards for TCE, apparently during interruptions of the pump-and-treat system.
The records show a pathway to Falls Lake and past exceedances in a tributary. They do not show TCE measured in Falls Lake itself. Parker's plan proposes new samples at Horse Creek locations SW-18 and SW-23.
06 · Accountability
What the Town knew, and when
The IDC was created by town commissioners in 1964 and dissolved by them after giving the sale proceeds to the Town. It owned the land for the plant's entire operating life and through every phase of the contamination's discovery. These are the documented points where the Town or its corporation was on notice.
1985
Consent Order while the IDC owns the land
TCE is found in the required monitoring wells. DEQ's fact sheet confirms the IDC "has owned the site since it was developed."
Documented
1987
The IDC itself records a hazardous-waste declaration
"Hazardous Waste Restrictions and Declaration and Notice by the Industrial Development Corporation of the Town of Wake Forest," Book 4143, Page 467.
Documented (index); image not yet purchased
2004
Town Clerk signs for the brownfields package
On April 15, 2004 the Notice of Intent, with the draft Brownfields Agreement, was hand-delivered to Town Manager Mark Williams for 60 days of public review. Its enclosed description names the IDC as owner, describes TCE in groundwater and a plume whose extent "has not been completely defined," reaching bedrock 113 feet down and beyond the north and west boundaries, and TCE in an off-site drainage swale.
Acknowledgement of receipt: Joyce W. Wilson, CMC, Town Clerk, April 15, 2004.Documented
2006
Lease ended, land sold and agreement recorded on one day
On June 2, 2006 the IDC terminated Parker's lease and deeded the land to St. Ives 220; the Brownfields Agreement and plat were recorded the same day. The agreement names the IDC as owner, but only DENR and the buyer signed it.
Documented
2008–09
Proceeds go to the Town
About $2.2 million after fees and claims, which became the Futures Fund.
Documented
2019
DEQ warning copied to three Town staff
J.J. Carr, Kip Padgett and Deeda Harris were copied on DEQ's letter about contamination "on-site and at near-by adjoining properties."
Documented
2023
DEQ writes to the Town Manager directly
Addressed to Town Manager Kip Padgett and the County Manager, for "use during their decision-making processes."
Documented
2026
A commissioner acknowledges it publicly
In a public Facebook reply in November 2026, Commissioner Adam Wright wrote that "the contamination isn't a secret" and that the Board has "been aware of the brownfield status as redevelopment has been discussed."
Public statement
What the record establishes
The Town-created IDC owned the land from 1964 to 2006 and recorded its own hazardous-waste declaration in 1987.
The Town Manager's office received the full brownfields package, with the contamination description, in 2004.
The sale and the agreement that restricts the land because of contamination happened the same day.
The Town received the sale proceeds.
Still open
Town Board and IDC minutes, 2002–2006, discussing the sale.
The 1987 declaration's text (Book 4143, Page 467) and the 2006 deed's disclosure language.
Why the IDC did not sign the Brownfields Agreement.
The subject of the January 2025 agreement between VCP and the Town (Book 19818, Page 149).
07 · Remedy
The cleanup, and the plan to change the standard
Parker has pumped and treated groundwater since 1992, run soil vapor extraction since 1996, excavated oily soil in 1999 and again in a project completed in 2024, and injected materials that help bacteria break down TCE (pilot 2014, full scale 2017, most recently October 2025 to March 2026). The consultant reports TCE "generally decreasing over time," with rebounds after each round. Yet DEQ wrote in May 2025 that "there is no final remedy for the facility."
August 2026: the Corrective Measures Study addendum
2006 agreement
Clean up until the compliance wells meet the standard
"The RCRA Part B permit also requires Parker to remediate the TCE plume until concentrations … from the four Point of Compliance wells do not exceed the North Carolina groundwater standards."
2026 proposal
Move the wells, change the standard, restrict the land
Relocate the point-of-compliance wells through a future Class 2 permit modification.
Alter the permit's Groundwater Protection Standards through a future Class 3 modification, "as a means to achieve risk-based cleanup for on-Site groundwater."
Develop parcel-by-parcel risk-based cleanup goals with land-use restrictions or Notices of Residual Contamination.
Add restrictions on four neighboring parcels; draft owner consent forms are attached.
The addendum says Parker's long-term strategy is a risk-based cleanup under N.C.G.S. 130A-310.65 to 310.77, though a full technical demonstration "is not practical and not proposed at this time." It proposes sampling site soils first, "before Site property redevelopment begins," with groundwater, surface water and soil gas sampled later "at currently undefined dates" because of property-access problems. The draft CMS Report is due 120 days after that sampling and then goes to public comment before DEQ selects a final remedy.
Money set aside for the remaining cleanup · millions of dollars
2006 figure as reported by the Wake Forest Gazette ; 2025 and 2026 approved estimates from DEQ . The 2026 cut reflects $1,336,900 of completed treatment removed from the estimate.
08 · Legal framework
The 2006 Brownfields Agreement
A brownfields agreement lets a buyer who did not cause contamination redevelop the land with protection from cleanup liability, in exchange for recorded restrictions that run with the land. This one was signed by DENR's Linda Culpepper and St. Ives 220's James M. Adams Sr., and recorded at Book 11991, Pages 2634–2666. Parker remains responsible for the cleanup under its separate hazardous-waste permit. The developer "shall not be required to conduct active remediation."
No use of surface water or groundwater without state approval.
No digging into groundwater (wells, ponds, pools, excavation) without prior sampling and state approval.
No exposing soil under pavement or buildings without sampling; DEQ may require removal, or capping "with perpetual maintenance."
No mining.
Vapor intrusion. No basements unless vented; every structure must prevent or mitigate unacceptable indoor air to DEQ's written satisfaction.
No use or storage of the site's contaminants beyond routine cleaning amounts.
No parks or sports without approval.
No day care, schools or playgrounds without approval.
Access must be given to parties doing assessment or cleanup.
Annual certification each January that the restrictions are followed.
Certifications are missing for 2010, 2015, 2016, 2018 (later covered), 2023 and 2025, and the State sent notices in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2023. None of the filed forms reports a violation.
09 · Now
The Costco proposal
In September 2024 local news, citing the Triangle Business Journal, reported Costco was eyeing land near the US 1 / NC 98 interchange. On December 1, 2025 a memorandum between owner VCP Wake Union and Goodwinco Acquisitions was recorded; Goodwinco is a trade name of The Goodwin Companies, a commercial developer. A memorandum puts a contract on record; it is not a sale, and no deed to Goodwinco had been recorded as of early November 2026. Residents report an informal neighborhood meeting about a Costco on the plant land.
On October 8, 2026 DEQ approved Terracon's sampling plan for a "Proposed New Building" and a "Proposed Fuel Center" on the plant land, with about 30 geotechnical borings and soil and groundwater sampling at the gas-station location, drawn over the mapped VOC and metals soil areas. DEQ also approved removing 14 of Parker's monitoring wells that redevelopment would disturb.
What the agreement allows
A warehouse store is a commercial use and fits restriction (a). Construction must follow restrictions (c), (d) and (f): sampling before exposing soil or groundwater, DEQ approval, and a building designed against vapor intrusion.
Questions for the Board
Will the Town require independent vapor-intrusion testing before occupancy and for the life of the building, as DEQ required for the Kearney Road apartments?
Should approval wait for the plume to be delineated to the southwest and for a final remedy to be selected?
How will a fuel center's tanks and piping be kept out of contaminated groundwater?
Who maintains slab and vapor systems if a tenant or owner changes, and who pays if they fail?
How will stormwater from a large paved site be kept from carrying disturbed soil to the Horse Creek tributaries?
Why should a site judged unsafe for homes, schools and daycares host a food store where employees work full shifts?
09b · Next door — The Apartment Story
Kearney Road Apartments: Built on Contaminated Ground, Stopped, and Restarted
Directly west of the Parker Hannifin plant, on Kearney Road, a 300-unit apartment complex is under construction. The developer is VCP Wake Forest LLC. The contamination beneath the site comes from the same toxic plume — TCE migrating west from the former factory next door.
What happened here is a preview of what could happen with Costco. And it should alarm every future resident who signs a lease — and every Wake Forest commissioner who approved it.
September 2024
TCE Found in Groundwater — 12× Over the Legal Limit
VCP's own sampling finds TCE up to 36.5 µg/L in groundwater beneath the apartment parcel. The state standard is 3 µg/L. That is more than twelve times the legal limit — the same chemical, the same plume, migrating from the Parker plant next door.
October 2024 — One Month Later
The Lender's Inspector Finds "No Concerns"
Synovus Bank commissions a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment before closing its loan. The report finds no recognized environmental conditions on the parcel — one month after VCP's own sampling documented TCE at twelve times the standard. The loan closes. Construction money flows.
A bank-hired consultant said the land was clean. The developer's own files said otherwise. Nobody told the future tenants.
Early 2025
Construction Begins Anyway — Soil-Gas TCE Hits 3,700 µg/m³
Clearing and mass grading begin before the site has even entered the state brownfields program. During investigation, soil-gas TCE is measured at 3,700 µg/m³ near the south edge of the property — the edge closest to the Parker plant.
Workers were digging through contaminated ground. No brownfields agreement was in place. No vapor controls had been designed. Construction proceeded anyway.
May 2025
Stop-Work Order — Wake County Halts the Site
Wake County issues a stop-work order. Construction halts. The developer's own Environmental Management Plan later confirms it plainly: "Development was halted due to a stop work order from Wake County due to environmental concerns."
The site sat idle for months. The contamination had been known for a year. The lender had been told there was nothing to worry about.
October 2025 – July 2026
Accepted Into Brownfields, Cleared to Restart
In October 2025, DEQ accepts the parcel into the brownfields program for high-density residential use. The Letter of Eligibility notes that "additional assessment will be necessary for DEQ to determine if vapor mitigation measures are needed."
A plan for 12 three-story apartment buildings is approved. Construction restarts July 6, 2026.
October 2026
Vapor Mitigation Plan: Barriers Under Every Building
DEQ approves a vapor intrusion mitigation plan on October 13, 2026. Every building must have a sealed vapor barrier beneath the slab with passive venting — convertible to active fans if testing shows vapors rising. Indoor-air tests are required before anyone moves in, and twice yearly for two years after.
Read that again: before anyone can live there, the air inside each apartment must be tested for cancer-causing vapors rising from the ground.
Summer 2027 — Planned Occupancy
300 Families. Contaminated Ground. No Signed Brownfields Agreement.
As of the latest records, 300 apartments are planned for occupancy in summer 2027 — directly on the contaminated plume, next to a plant with no final cleanup plan, and without a signed brownfields agreement between the developer and the state.
Future tenants will not be told the full history. They will not see the Phase I report that said there was nothing wrong. They will not read the soil-gas numbers from 2025. They will sign a lease, move in furniture, put children to bed — above a sealed vapor barrier, installed because the air beneath the slab was too contaminated to leave alone.
The vapor barrier is not a cleanup. It is a lid. And if the passive venting fails, or the monitoring lapses, or the brownfields program's oversight is cut — the lid comes off.
36.5 µg/LTCE in groundwater — 12× the 3 µg/L standard
3,700 µg/m³Soil-gas TCE at the south edge — before construction stopped
300Apartments planned for occupancy summer 2027
0Signed brownfields agreements as of latest records
Kearney Road apartments: halted, then cleared to resume
Sept 2024: VCP's sampling finds TCE up to 36.5 µg/L in groundwater. A lender's Phase I a month later reports no concerns.
Early 2025: clearing and grading begin before the site enters the brownfields program; soil-gas TCE up to 3,700 µg/m³ near the south edge.
May 2025: DEQ notice and a Wake County stop-work order halt construction.
Oct 2025: accepted into the brownfields program for high-density residential use.
2026: plan for 12 three-story buildings approved; restart moved to July 2026, occupancy to summer 2027; vapor barriers with convertible venting and two years of indoor-air tests found compliant on October 13.
The apartment developer's own brownfields agreement had not been signed as of the latest records.
PIN 1831751080 · 13.8 ac
Townhome parcel
One 2025 groundwater sample above the TCE standard; soil vapor within limits. Parker's consultants recommend a groundwater-use notice. Named in DEQ's 2019 and 2023 letters.
12405 Wake Union Church Rd
Self-storage (former Sleep Inn)
Focus of DEQ's April 2026 soil-gas demand; no land-use restrictions. A Parker easement with its owners was recorded October 30, 2026.
Capellan Street
St. Ives homes
2022 soil-gas tests at two homes were below screening levels. Parker's 2026 plan lists several existing homes along the northwest boundary for possible groundwater-use notices, based on site well data.
PIN 1831667682 / 1831752452
Adams property
Proposed for groundwater-use and vapor restrictions; data gaps and past access problems noted.
DSCA DC920061
Former dry cleaner
Named by the apartment developer as another possible TCE source southwest of its parcel.
11 · Context
Other sites with the same chemical or the same company
Wake Forest, NC · NCN000410857
Stony Hill Road TCE site
A separate site at 7303 Stony Hill Road, linked to a circuit-board operation, not Parker. State regulators learned of contamination in 2005; most neighbors learned in 2012, when EPA testing found about 21 affected family wells. EPA spent about $3.7 million; the responsible parties paid $500, per NC Newsline.
Waverly, Ohio · Parker Hannifin
Walmart and Aldi over a TCE plume
An Ohio EPA inspection reportedly found the groundwater treatment system shut down for two years, unreported TCE discharge exceedances, and no vapor testing of the stores above the plume.
Enumclaw, Washington · Parker Hannifin
$366,000 EPA penalty (2024)
Over a dozen hazardous-waste violations, including treating dangerous waste without a permit; five violations cited by the state in 2019 were still uncorrected.
McCook, Nebraska · Parker Hannifin
Monitoring and land-use controls
EPA's 2018 proposed final remedy for TCE, PCE and 1,4-dioxane in groundwater: monitoring plus controls barring residential use and drinking water. The same manage-in-place model.
12 · Federal
Why it is not a Superfund site
The site is already under federal hazardous-waste law (RCRA), administered by North Carolina. EPA's long-standing policy is to defer listing a site on the National Priorities List when it "can be comparably addressed under RCRA Subtitle C Corrective Action," with exceptions that mainly cover owners unable or unwilling to pay. Because Parker holds the permit, has financial assurance in place and is doing the work, a Hazard Ranking System score of 28.5 or more would not by itself put the site on the list.
What residents give up
EPA's Superfund community tools: Community Advisory Groups and Technical Assistance Grants to hire an independent expert.
An ATSDR public health assessment, which accompanies NPL listing.
A federally selected remedy with formal five-year reviews.
What residents keep
Public comment on the draft CMS Report before DEQ chooses a remedy.
Public notice and comment on the Class 2 and Class 3 permit modifications Parker plans to request.
The right to petition EPA for a preliminary assessment under the national contingency plan (40 CFR 300.420(b)(5)).
13 · Transactions
Ownership and money
1964–2006Industrial Development Corporation of the Town of Wake Forest
2006–2012St. Ives 220 Commercial (Jim Adams)
2012–2019RREF BB-NC SICP (Rialto), by foreclosure
2019–2022MKC Development Company
2022–nowVCP Wake Union LLC
ContractGoodwinco Acquisitions (memorandum, 2025)
Recorded sale values · millions of dollars; 2012–2022 values derived from deed excise stamps
2006 from the Town's Futures Fund page ; later sales from Wake County deed records . The 2006 sale covered the plant only; later sales include the adjoining tracts.
St. Ives 220 borrowed $4.76 million from BB&T in 2006. After foreclosure, Rialto's RREF bid $1.61 million for the plant parcel in June 2012. In December 2024 the apartment parcel moved to VCP Wake Forest LLC with a Synovus Bank loan.
14 · Participation
What residents can do
1
Request the Town's records
Ask the Town Clerk for Board and IDC minutes, 2002–2006; IDC correspondence about the sale; the 2006 deed; and the January 2025 VCP–Town agreement (Book 19818, Page 149). Public records requests go through the Town Clerk's office.
2
Request DEQ's correspondence
Ask NC DEQ for all correspondence with the IDC or the Town about this site, and the September 15, 2026 off-site investigation report. File through DEQ's public records portal.
3
Get on DEQ's mailing list
Ask the Hazardous Waste Section to add you to the facility mailing list for the draft CMS Report and the Class 2 and 3 permit modifications. Project engineer: Taylor Fant, taylor.fant@deq.nc.gov, 919-707-8325.
4
Speak at Town meetings
Bring the documents on this site to the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners when the site plan comes forward, and ask the questions listed under the Costco proposal.
Every state record cited here is hosted on this site. Very long reports are trimmed to their summary pages and key figures, marked "Excerpt"; the full report is one link away at the state's file system. News and federal pages are linked at their source.
16 · Terms
Glossary
TCE (trichloroethene)
A degreasing solvent. EPA classifies it as carcinogenic to humans. Breaks down to cis-1,2-DCE and then vinyl chloride.
µg/L
Micrograms per liter, about parts per billion in water.
2L standard
North Carolina's groundwater quality standard (15A NCAC 02L). For TCE: 3 µg/L.
2B standard / WS-IV
Surface-water standards; WS-IV marks a water-supply source such as Horse Creek.
RCRA
The federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs hazardous waste and, here, Parker's cleanup permit.
Point of compliance (POC) wells
The wells where the permit measures whether groundwater meets standards. Moving them changes where compliance is judged.
Groundwater Protection Standards (GPS)
The concentration limits written into the permit for those wells.
Risk-based remediation
Cleanup to site-specific goals that rely on land-use restrictions instead of meeting unrestricted standards (N.C.G.S. 130A-310.65 to .77).
Vapor intrusion
Chemical vapors moving from soil or groundwater into indoor air.
VISL / SGSL
Vapor intrusion and soil-gas screening levels used to judge indoor-air risk.
LUR / LURU
Land-use restriction; LURU is the annual certification that the restrictions are followed.
NORC
Notice of Residual Contamination: a recorded deed notice that contamination remains.
SWMU / AOC
Solid waste management unit / area of concern: places on a site where waste was handled or released.
CMS
Corrective Measures Study: the analysis used to choose the final cleanup remedy.
NPL
National Priorities List, EPA's Superfund list.
IDC
Industrial Development Corporation of the Town of Wake Forest, created by town commissioners in 1964.