E-letter to Pender and Brunswick County Commissioners

I was stunned to learn about another polluting heavy industrial plant proposed for Castle Hayne. Cement-manufacturing industry is a dirty business with a trail around the globe of environmental issues, health concerns and lawsuits. The introduction of more air pollutants into North Carolina airways, as you may know, is very relevant at this time with numerous lawsuits in NC regarding coal fired plants and the mercury they emit. The decision to allow a cement plant by Titan America, LLC, the first coal fired cement plant in North Carolina, makes it of considerable concern at the state level.

Our air quality (which of course impacts the health of our water) is already overburdened. The Toxic Release Inventory conducted in 2006 by the EPA ranks New Hanover County in the state (1 being the worst) as # 1 in the state for Chromium, # 1 for CO (Carbon monoxide), # 5 for NOx (nitrogen oxide/smog), # 6 Particulate Matter, # 5 SO2 (sulphur dioxide/acid rain), # 6 for mercury. A cement manufacturing operation, regardless of being a state-of-the-art facility, will only exacerbate air and water quality issues.

When Castle Hayne was zoned heavy industrial it didn’t have a large residential population nearby. Now there are three elementary within 5 miles of the proposed plant. The total impact zone includes a 30-mile radius of our beautiful coastal area. With our water quality already deteriorated, we need growth that does no further harm to our limited water, fragile resources and communities.

The main argument by commissioners for allowing Titan to build in our area seems to be economic – 160 jobs and tax revenue over time. But we must consider the negative impacts directly resulting from cement manufacturing pollution on other businesses, North Carolina’s $2.3 billion fishing industry, loss of possible real estate value, loss of life, increased health care costs or the eventual toxic plant clean-up and reclamation at the end of the plant’s operation.

This will impact all counties surrounding New Hanover. I hope that you will educate yourself about this issue – not just the Titan generated information, but the wealth of information regarding health risks, impacts on water and air quality, as well as the short-sighted economics.

*http://xapps.enr.state.nc.us/aq/ToxicsReport/Toxrpt.jsp?ibeam=true