Home Blog Friends of Lower Cape Fear A Vocal Majority Speaks...And Says "NO!" to Titan Cement!
A Vocal Majority Speaks...And Says "NO!" to Titan Cement!
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 15:11

Hundreds of citizens picketed the New Hanover County Courthouse on February 1, telling County Commissioners to just say no to Titan Cement. Numerous citizens spoke to the crowd through a loudspeaker system, including business leaders and local pediatrician David Hill, who told the crowd that some children and some elderly residents would die from the pollution from Titan Cement. He also mentioned that the North Carolina Pediatric Society formally opposes Titan Cement because of its potential impact on children's health. Thanks to everyone who came out to show elected officials that they need to stand up and start representing citizens and not corporate polluters.

Protest organizer Kayne Darrell of the Citizens Against Titan, presented a petition with nearly 6,000 signatures of people opposed to Titan to the New Hanover County Commissioners, asking them to pass a resolution requesting Governor Bev Perdue freeze all permits for Titan Cement until the SBI investigation into corruption in the permit process is complete. She also asked them to request the Governor require Titan to undergo a State Environmental Policy Act review. Others asked the commission to rescind the $4.2 milliion in incentives the County Commissioners approved in April 2008, since recent news reports reveal the company grossly misrepresented its environmental record to the commissioners, WID, and the community, and have actively tried to avoid a comprehensive state environmental review of the project.


Join the Gathering Throng! Click Here to sign the petition. Click here to get Action Alerts. Contact us to add your business to the growing list of businesses and business leaders concerned that Titan will hamstring our future economic development!

Then email your county commissioners and make the same request of them. Tell them they need to show some spine and send Titan Cement packing. Tell them you'd like a response to your letter. It's an election year for some of them, so they should be listening. They're emails are below. And remember, Commissioner Jonathan Barfield has been a staunch opponent of Titan Cement from the beginning, Jason Thompson campaigned as anti-Titan candidate, but seems to have forgotten it since the election. Ted Davis, Bobby Greer and Bill Caster all voted in favor of the Titan incentive package. Caster is running for re-election this year, while Greer has announced he will not seek another term. So they have no excuses not to do the right thing.

Chairman, Jason Thompson:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Vice-Chairman, Jonathan Barfield, Jr.:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Robert Greer:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
William Caster:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ted Davis, Jr.:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


Stay Tuned,
Your Friends at StopTitan.org

 

 

 

 

More pictures here:

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Patricia Moyer   |2010-02-02 11:24:21
Thanks for posting the update so quickly. Last night was an amazing cooperative effort w/Kayne's crew organizing this rally and everyone joining together to get it done. I was, as always, so impressed with the speakers at the meeting.
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Elli Klein  - a Concerned Citizen of Greater Wilmington   |2010-02-02 11:52:35
I share this FB post from Roxanne Marchand, a film maker w/ local ties:

“A Native American grandfather talking to his young grandson tells the
boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The
first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is fear,
greed and hatred. "Which ...wolf will win, grandfather?" asks the young
boy. "Whichever one I feed," is the reply.”

This certainly applies to the Stop Titan Cement Plant movement and the Build a Cement Plant in an irreplaceable environment. Let's work smartly to starve the wolf of greed.
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Jorge Dean  - Biologist   |2010-02-03 10:11:49
Let's feed the wolf some mercury fish.
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Kayne Darrell   |2010-02-02 18:19:28
We can do amazing things when we come together for a cause that we believe in! It was great to see so many folks out there last night; so much passion and so many different people from all walks of life, understanding the sense of empowerment you feel when fighting for something you believe in.
Great job everyone...We WILL win this battle!!
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Lloyd Smith  - Way to keep this issue in front of the public and     |2010-02-02 18:19:30
I posted some more photos from the Rally at http://www.flickr.com/photos/47155342@N02/sets/72157623212264963/. The photos above don't give you the full impact - the crowd was huge, vocal and impressive. For the first half hour or so of the NH county commissioners meeting, the Rally continued outside, and from inside you could still hear the chants and the car horns honking in support! The commissioners cannot turn a blind eye to this - they know that they must act on this issue, and many solid recommendations for action were presented. Stay tuned to see if any of them get the message and act.
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Anonymous   |2010-02-06 17:12:55
Sometimes decisions are made on too little information. Sometimes the information provided to you has been filtered before it reaches your eyes.

If you are a County Commissioner in New Hanover County presently backing Titan Cement it should be apparent that on April 21, 2008 you acted on too little information. It should also be apparent that the information supplied to you by Titan and it's supporters had been heavily filtered.

Titan promised the people of New Hanover County that they would "not affect the environment in any way shape or form and ... unless we make sure that this is the case we'll not build the facility, is that clear?" Titan made that promise when their mines were shut down in Florida by federal court order.

At that same meeting Titan representatives promised "we will comply with the laws and regulations and then go above that". Titan officials additionally promised to "not only meet the standards we're going to exceed them."

If you have read through the fact sheets provided by both Titan America and DAQ delineating the Castle Hayne plant emissions, if you have followed the multiple reports from Florida documenting Titan's environmental problems in Miami Dade County, if you have read the multiple press reports clearly documenting severe problems with cement plant emissions for other cement plant companies in multiple locations, and if you have read the emails from Titan officials to members of your own staff attempting to evade SEPA, this must cause you to question your original decision on this matter.

At that crucial meeting Titan officials also stated
"If the county doesn't invite us we will go, we have other options and we will go." Titan would not be here unless you had asked them to come on April 21, 2008. The public record does not support your abdication of your responsibility in this matter.

Citizens do not expect their elected officials to be right all the time. The public does have the realistic expectation that their elected leaders will act appropriately and decisively when additional information is made available to them.

You have been asked to take appropriate action at this time.
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