A small group of activists gathered in a Mebane park Tuesday morning to say that their fight against a Buc-ee’s location coming to the town is not over, despite the city council’s approval of the project over a year ago.
The gathering was pegged to the release of “Buc-ee’s Burden,” a 34-page report examining the health, environmental, and economic impacts of mega gas stations. The report was commissioned by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network and the Indigenous-led environmental justice organization 7 Directions of Service and authored by local journalist Lewis Raven Wallace with contributions from Raleigh-based energy policy researcher Sue Sturgis.
“This report calls on all of us—residents, leaders, and policy makers—to protect our people, to say no to environmental racism, and to build a future that truly serves the public good instead of subsidizing corporate harm,” said Rania Masri, co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network.
The Mebane Buc-ee’s will span 31 acres with 120 gas pumps and a 74,000-square-foot store. It marks Buc-ee’s entry into North Carolina after the Texas-based chain initially proposed a location in nearby Efland in Orange County. In January 2021, Orange County commissioners imposed multiple conditions on the project, including downsizing the gas station and adding environmental protections. Buc-ee’s withdrew its application the following month, stating that Orange County was not a “suitable fit.” The company then moved its proposal across the county line to Mebane, where the project was approved in a 5-0 vote in January 2024.
“Mebane buckled. They gave the knee,” said Jason Keck, a member of 7 Directions of Service. “When should we stop saying ‘wrong is wrong’?”
Proponents of the Mebane Buc-ee’s say it will bring significant economic benefits to Mebane, including 225 full-time jobs starting at $15 per hour, millions in annual tax revenue, and an estimated 5 million annual visitors who could patronize other local businesses. The company will also sell local products from area vendors alongside its signature items.
Opponents argue that the promised jobs pay below Alamance County’s living wage ($20.19 an hour) and that the project poses serious environmental and economic risks. Rather than boosting local businesses, opponents say, Buc-ee’s will capture highway travelers who currently stop at existing establishments, with its massive scale and comprehensive amenities keeping visitors on-site rather than exploring downtown Mebane.
The Efland proposal faced fierce opposition partly because it would have sat on top of a protected watershed. According to the new “Buc-ee’s Burden” report, the Mebane location poses its own environmental concerns. The site sits within a mile of 13 known underground fuel leaks, including five at the Pilot station directly across the street, with the most recent leak from 2023 still awaiting cleanup.
The report notes that the proposed 120-pump facility will routinely emit toxic vapors including benzene, a known carcinogen linked to childhood leukemia. Research cited in the report found hazardous levels of benzene up to 524 feet from gas pumps, meaning the Mebane facility could affect nearby residents and an adjacent mobile home community.
The report also notes that the Mebane Buc-ee’s will sit on part of the historic Occaneechi Great Trading Path.
“The city of Mebane would allow this piece of historic landscape to be just bulldozed over,” said Crystal Cavalier-Keck, director and co-founder of 7 Directions of Service.
While activists argue the Mebane City Council turned a blind eye to the desires of its citizens, the January 2024 city council meeting where Buc-ee’s was approved—after nine hours of public testimony—did feature significant community enthusiasm for the project. Supporters, donned in Buc-ee’s shirts and beaver onesies, presented a petition with nearly twice as many signatures as opponents.
Asked how opponents weigh that enthusiasm against their concerns, Cavalier-Keck said supporters were uninformed: “the people who are sitting in there with those cute Buc-ee’s outfits on and eating beaver nuggets,” she said, “when their children get sick with cancer, that’s when it’s too late.”
Del Ward, an organizer who helped successfully oppose the Buc-ee’s proposal in Efland, went further, claiming the Buc-ee’s support petition “financed signatures” and “had signatures from out of state” while opponents gathered 1,000 signatures “within, like, a week, just walking around the town.”
“It’s amazing to me that Mebane City Council would see the history of this business and the way they treated their neighbors in Orange County—to the point that [Buc-ee’s director of real estate] Stan Beard had to run out of that county with his tail between his legs—that they would come to Mebane and Mebane City Council would just allow it,” Ward said.
Buc-ee’s did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the project being green-lit, speakers insisted that until construction is complete, the outcome isn’t final.
“It’s a done deal when the gas station is here and functioning. Until that time, it’s not really a done deal,” Masri said.
Masri said she wasn’t implying that specific legal action would be taken, but pointed to electoral consequences.
“City councils come and go,” she said. “I would love to find folks in Mebane who are so enraged that their city council has allowed this atrocity in spite of their residents saying no that they take that rage and they run for election.”
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