PRESS RELEASE - For immediate release, June 9th, 2009
Contact: Mike Giles
Phone: 910-790-3275
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Wilmington--- The N.C. Coastal Federation asked Gov. Beverly Perdue today to delay state permits on a proposed cement plant near Wilmington until a federal study on its environmental effects is completed.

Todd Miller, the federation’s executive director, and Mike Giles, its Cape Fear Coastkeeper®, asked Perdue in a letter dated June 9 to use her discretionary authority to stop the state’s Division of Air Quality from issuing Titan America a draft permit until the required federal Environmental Impact Statement is completed. That study will evaluate all the project’s potential effects on surface and ground waters, air, wetlands, wildlife, human health and the economy of the region. It could take two years to complete.

“Issuing any state permits prior to the complete evaluation of the project does not make sense,” Miller said. “It will result in an incomplete review of the impacts this project could have on our coastal region.”

Titan wants to build a cement manufacturing plant and massive strip mine on the Northeast Cape Fear River, seven miles north of downtown Wilmington. It would be the fourth-largest cement manufacturing facility in the country.

This controversial project has drawn the ire of thousands of citizens, over 200 physicians, environmental organizations, public health groups and the entire New Hanover County legislative delegation.

Both New Hanover County and the state have given Titan incentives to build at the site of a cement plant that closed more than 25 years ago. Titan plans to mine limestone on the adjacent 3,000 acres, which includes over 1,000 acres of forested wetlands.

The Division of Air Quality reviews only emissions from the smokestack of the cement kiln, which will burn coal, and does not consider the deposition on the surrounding water or land. This deposition includes mercury and over 140 other hazardous air pollutants.

Typically a project of this size and scope would be subject to a review by the state under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), which would automatically delay any state permits until the federal environmental study is completed.

No SEPA review was done on the Titan project. N.C. Senate and House members have introduced bills that would place a temporary moratorium on the state permit process. Those bills are currently in committees.

Mike Giles, the federation’s Cape Fear Coastkeeper, is coordinating the legislative effort in Raleigh along with Cape Fear River Watch, Pender Watch and Conservancy, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic and the grassroots citizen organization Friends of the Lower Cape Fear. For further information contact Mike Giles at (910)790-3275.