CHAPEL HILL - UNC officials who attended a Dec. 14 meeting with Bingham Township residents say they didn't mention that treated wastewater from an animal holding facility had leaked into a nearby creek because they didn't know it yet.

As previously reported, UNC suspected a 1.6 million gallon storage pond holding treated wastewater from dog kennels was leaking as early as Oct. 19. It took until Dec. 15 to install and turn on a sump pump to collect the leaking water and return it to the pond. The pond, which was about a quarter full, was expected to be emptied last week and the water taken to OWASA's wastewater treatment plant.

Laura Streitfeld, an organizer with the citizens group Preserve Rural Orange, has called on UNC to stop using the storage pond until the state concludes its investigation. The state issued a notice of violation after observing green-dyed treated wastewater in Collins Creek Dec. 14. That was the same day as the meeting between UNC officials and Bingham Township residents at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

"Preserve Rural Orange is concerned about UNC's lack of transparency and accountability, delay in reporting an illegal discharge to state authorities, failure to alert neighbors who have repeatedly expressed concern precisely about these hazards, and construction of faulty equipment without a permit," Streitfeld said in a release. "These actions endanger public health and the watershed, and result in costly repairs."

Both Associate Vice Chancellor Dwayne Pinkney and Mary Beth Koza, UNC's director of environment, health and safety, say UNC did not hide information from the public.

In an e-mail, Pinkney said he was unaware at the meeting that the leak had reached the creek. He said the meeting, at which researchers talked about how they use animals to study heart disease, diabetes and multiple sclerosis, was meant to lay the groundwork for ongoing communication with residents.

Although UNC staff had walked the site with state inspectors earlier that day, Pinkney said he had not yet learned what they had found.

The staff person who was on site that day was not at the evening meeting to provide the information, he added.

"In hindsight, perhaps we were not as coordinated as we should have been, but it is unfortunate that this has been characterized as dishonesty," Pinkney said in the e-mail.

Koza agreed.

"I honestly believe it was a timing issue," she said. "It was not someone deliberately saying no," don't release the information.

UNC contacted its engineers quickly after suspecting the leak in October, Koza said. Tests had to confirm that the leak was coming from the storage pond, and when they did, UNC contacted the state.

That communication and testing took time, she said, adding that the Thanksgiving holiday also contributed to the time lag.

State officials have said the wastewater treatment system was well designed but not well constructed.

Koza said she agreed with that assessment. Asked whether UNC might take any action against the contractors, she said, "We have to have all our facts first."

Koza disputed Streitfeld's estimate that up to 120,000 gallons might have leaked in the eight weeks between the first written communication of the leak in October and the installation of the sump pump in December.

Streitfeld based the number on a leak of 1.5 gallons per minute, as reported by UNC's engineering consultants who visited the site Nov. 3.

Koza said her staff measured the leakage at 1 gallon per minute. But even so, she said she did not want to estimate since UNC does not know when the leak started.

At the time an underground drainage pipe was emptying the leakage from the storage pond onto the ground, which is how it reached Collins Creek.

The creek flows into the Haw River and eventually Jordan Lake.