Senator Julia Boseman (D-New Hanover) holding true to a campaign promise, held her ground on Tuesday, March 24, at a public hearing for Senate Bill 699, calling for a moratorium on the permitting of cement plants through September 2010, allowing ample time to conduct a thorough study on the impacts of cement manufacturing on public health and the environment. Boseman introduced the bill on March 19.
Five days later, at a public hearing, two Titan America officials and a host of local residents appeared before the Senate’s
Lumina News file photo
The proposed Carolinas Cement Company, a subsidiary of Titan America LLC, is located on a 1,868-acre tract in Castle Hayne, the former site of the now-defunct Ideal Cement Company. |
Agriculture/Environment/Natural Resource Committee. Among those present in support of the proposed moratorium was Stop Titan leader, president of Friends of the Lower Cape Fear; and contributing writer and former senior editor for the environment for National Geographic, Joel Bourne of Wilmington.
“I was very enthusiastic that the Senate was actually having a hearing on the bill that got to the committee so quickly,” Bourne said. “It’s an education process for people who are not from this area.”
Bourne said the hearing room was packed with folks from New Hanover County, roughly 75 people who came to support the proposed moratorium and two representatives from Titan America, business development director, Marino Papazoglou, and chief lobbyist, John Merritt, of McGuire Wood.
Speaking in favor of the moratorium were representatives from Stop Titan, the North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF), the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). North Carolina Coastkeeper, Mike Giles delivered the keynote overview, followed by Mac Currin, chairman of the Marine Fisheries Commission, who discussed letters drafted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Division of Air Quality asking for a delay in the air permit.
“The Marine Fisheries Commission is very concerned about this area because it’s a prime nursery area for a lot of the marine fish species that are very important to this area,” Bourne said.
Dr. Craig Galbraith, UNCW Cameron School of Business, professor of technology, entrepreneurship and corporate strategy and GlaxoSmithKline Fellow of technology and economic development, spoke regarding the alleged economic impact of the proposed cement plant.
“Basically he said based on intensive studies of low-tech, heavily polluting industries that have been placed throughout the South, he expects us to get a net of 48 jobs from this. Typically when these industries move into town, out of every 100 jobs, you get a net of 24,” Bourne said.
Bourne also said that the hearing was so short that not everyone who was prepared to speak was able to do so, including Dr. Hope Peterson, pediatrician, who planned to present a petition signed by 150 physicians opposing Titan because of potential health impacts to the community, along with an endorsement for the moratorium from the North Carolina Pediatrics Association.
The Agriculture/Environment/ Natural Resource Committee will now review the bill, report their findings out of committee in preparation for a vote by the Senate and ultimately the General Assembly. Boseman’s bill proposes to establish a legislative commission to investigate the questions that have been raised by the public.
“The bottom line,” Bourne said, “Titan has, three times, manipulated their proposal to get out of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review, which would require them to wait until after the federal EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) process in order to get any permits. The first time they maneuvered [the site] to get out of these wetlands, which were extremely sensitive, by CAMA (Coastal Area Management Act). The second time they dropped their barge equipment requirements because the barge would require them to fix the dock, and that would require the involvement of CAMA and automatically trigger this SEPA review. The third time was just a few weeks ago when they learned that this railroad grant that they were given by the state would also trigger a SEPA review and so they immediately turned down the grant even though they had applied for it and accepted it previously. Each move has taken something off the table that would immediately trigger a state environmental policy act review.”
Even though Titan was encouraged with a $300,000 incentive from former Governor Mike Easley and $4.2 million from the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, Bourne hopes Boseman’s bill will put the regulatory players back into action. Optimistically he said that it might be a couple of weeks or even a month before citizens get a report out of committee.
Citizens have sent more than 900 emails to legislators asking for the moratorium, and more than 2,000 emails to the Department of Air Quality and other state officials asking to delay issuing Titan’s draft air permit until adequate regulations are in place to protect the environment and public health. More than 3,000 citizens have signed a petition opposing the plant.
The most recent petition to surface includes more than 200 health care providers, including 125 doctors from New Hanover and Pender Counties, who are opposed to the proposed cement plant, which would be one of the largest polluting facilities in the state. The petition is the brainchild of Dr. Fred Opper, a prominent gastroenterologist in Wilmington.
The proposed plant and associated limestone mine would have the fifth highest mercury emissions in the state (263 pounds per year), and would pump out hundreds of thousands of tons of criteria air pollutants that contribute to smog, haze and ground-level ozone, as well as numerous heavy metals, some of which are known carcinogens. The plant would also destroy more than 1,000 acres of wetlands along the Northeast Cape Fear River, and be located within five miles of numerous schools with estimated enrollments of 8,700 children.
