by Keith T. Barber
Critics call information session ‘controlled, calculated’
Carolinas Cement Company, a subsidiary of Titan America LLC, hosted the first of three community information workshops at the North Campus of Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) Tuesday in Castle Hayne.
Titan spokesperson Kate McClain explained the Greece-based cement company decided to hold the workshops after pulling out of two public forums on Titan’s proposal to build the nation’s fourth largest cement plant on the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River.
Staff photo by Joshua Curry
Titan America representative Charlie Bartocci talks with N.C. Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes about cement production on Tuesday, Sept. 16, during the first of three community information workshops hosted by Carolinas Cement. |
“We feel like this was a much better opportunity to tell our story in a way that it would be better understood by people,” McClain said. “This is a complex project, and we want people to have all their questions answered and have all the information they need in a factual and accurate manner rather than a situation of confusion.”
Approximately 30 Titan employees from its Roanoke, Va., and Medley, Fla., plants were on hand to answer the public’s questions Tuesday over a four-hour period. An estimated several hundred citizens attended the tightly controlled event.
However, media access to specific Titan officials was restricted during the workshop. McClain said the only Titan officials the media could interview included Dr. Richard Pleus, a toxicologist who is conducting an independent risk assessment of the plant’s potential mercury emissions, plant manager Bob Odom and herself. Lumina News requested an interview with Marino Papazaglou, Titan’s director of business development, but was told he would not be available to the media.
Tracy Skrabal, regional manager for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said the controlled nature of Tuesday’s event made the term “community information workshop” an inaccurate description.
“From their standpoint, it’s a very calculated move — they’re controlling their message,” Skrabal said. “There is very little technical information supplied here tonight on what the actual probable impacts would be of this facility. This is about a community show and tell. (Titan officials) are very nice and gracious, but the bottom line is, they’ve told us nothing we can actually respond to with respect to the impacts on our community.”
The Coastal Federation, in conjunction with the Sierra Club, Cape Fear River Watch and StopTitan.org, held an alternative public workshop in the CFCC library on Tuesday. Skrabal said the Coastal Federation’s message to Titan is clear: “We feel Titan needs to locate their facility in an area that is not nearly this sensitive to environmental pollution,” she said. “There are some very pristine areas here — we’ve spent over $50 million purchasing conservation lands in this area. There are schools — at least 5,000 (children) will be educated in schools within five miles of this facility. We think it is a terrible choice for them to locate the facility here, and they should clean up their act and move into green industry standards, which they do not employ.”
State Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes said she was disappointed that the format of Tuesday’s event was not an open forum where the public could have all its concerns addressed. Hughes said she’s not yet satisfied with Titan’s response to the environmental concerns expressed by her constituents in Castle Hayne.
Maggie Parish, a New Hanover County resident, said she spoke one-on-one with Dr. Pleus and shared her concerns about the fact Titan has applied for a permit to discharge up to 263 pounds of mercury into the atmosphere annually. Parish told Pleus she is highly sensitive to toxins such as mercury and pointed out that New Hanover County is already ranked sixth among North Carolina counties for emissions of mercury, arsenic and hydrochloric acid.
“I was pointing out to him that the air here is already polluted, and a number of us are concerned our air is at full carrying capacity and we didn’t need to add more (pollutants),” Parish said.
J. Michael Hudson has lived in Castle Hayne for the past 30 years. He remembers when Ideal Cement operated on the site where Titan plans to build. Based on his experience, Hudson said Titan is a bad fit for the area.
“I think they should not be here,” Hudson said. “I believe we should develop that property for families and schools and produce a nice residential area — clean our environment up. The environment up there is dirty and it needs work.”
Hudson said residents’ primary concern should be the health of New Hanover County’s children. The proposed Carolinas Cement Company would be within five miles of three area schools, including a new elementary and middle school currently under construction on Holly Shelter Road that will eventually house 1,400 students.
Wilmington City Council Member Jason Thompson said he attended Tuesday’s workshop to gather information about the proposed cement plant. Thompson said he opposed the New Hanover County Commissioners’ decision to grant a $4.2 million economic incentive package to Titan, and he remains skeptical about the plant’s benefit to the area.
“I’ve got questions. I’m really not in support of it — that’s why I came out here today,” Thompson said. “From what I’ve seen so far, it might have been a hasty decision. It might have needed more scrutiny before we said, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to it.”
