E-Letter to Wilmington City Council

(Saffo, Quinn, Padgett, Sheridan, Thompson, Sparks, Tomey)

As a Cape Fear citizen, I was stunned to learn about another polluting heavy industrial plant proposed for Castle Hayne. The 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 multi-national 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 denigrated water) is already overburdened. When Castle Hayne was zoned heavy industrial it didn’t have a large residential population nearby. Now we have three elementary schools in the proposed danger zone (5 mile radius from a cement manufacturing plant). The total impact zone includes a 30-mile radius of our beautiful coastal area.

The main argument for allowing Titan to build in our area seems to be solely economic. Studies show that low technology manufacturing actually decreases resident consumer spending and employment rates as well as creating jobs that are often temporary, low wage and dangerous.

I’d like to see the Wilmington City Council protect it’s citizens from the blatant disregard for the negative impacts 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.

It’s irresponsible to spend our taxpayer dollars to recruit another polluting company, especially one that reported $900 million in revenue last year. With our air and water quality already deteriorated, we need growth that does no further harm to our fragile resources and communities.