What You Can Do
Sign the petition!. Enter your e-mail address and “sign” to indicate that you do not want Titan Cement in the Cape Fear region:
Sign-up for Action Alerts. Enter your e-mail address. We will not be share, sell or use it for any other purpose than sending you updates/action alerts for Stop Titan. Also, you may unsubscribe at any time.
Get the Word Out. When you get our initial letter (it will be some of the same information from the web-site) we request that you share it with others. Please send it out to your e-mail friends/contacts as soon as possible, asking them to forward it too. We envision the roots of a tree, connected deeply and spreading out in all directions as we get the word out.
Have conversations. Everywhere you go. I asked a woman working at Pottery Barn the other day, “Have you heard about the new Titan plant? She lives in Castle Hayne and had never heard about it. Now she’s getting involved.
Call us/E-mail and tell us you want to help. We need: people to help with graphics, flyers, fundraising, community informational meetings/town hall meetings in every town (and people in each area to help set it up), writing letters to the editor, help making contact with organizations/schools to get the word out, as well as sitting in permitting meetings, and talking with officials.
E-mail us and we will either call or e-mail you back at contactus@stoptitan.org.
Write a letter to elected officials (and Titan). Once you’re up to speed you can use our form letter or create your own to send an electronic letter to those who are making decisions that will impact us and our communities.
Permitting Process Public Input: As Titan goes through the lengthy Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process to get the federal and state permits they need to operate the plant, we’ll send out notices of public meetings where you can make your voices heard. The EIS meetings should start in June, but we hope to have a huge groundswell of opposition and outcry long before that.
Currently, the newspapers are only reporting the industry’s side. We have not found, save for a column in Lumina News, anything addressing the serious scope of this project. People need to hear the whole story about cement manufacturing as well as the complete costs to our communities and our environment, particularly the impacts on the health of our children. After all, government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people. Not for politicians and corporate polluters.
I understand there’s going to be a public meeting on 5/20. Could you please publish any information you have on that?
Thank you,
Catherine Welch
News Director WHQR
343-1640
I have personally been involved with the recent opposition of two landfill projects in SE NC. Knowing what I know now and the effects possible from the pollution from an industry such as this, you have my full support.
To spend hard earned tax payer money to invite an environmentally unfriendly big business into the fragile area of Southeastern NC is an added insult to injury.
I stand in opposition to and am willing to invest meaningful time, effort and resources into the effort against the Titan Cement Project.
John in Hampstead — if you could help involve some of the other people you know from your work against the landfill projects, it would be a big help. If you have e-mail addresses for some of those people, you may consider sending a link to this site and asking them to join in signing the petition and attending organizing meetings.
CATHERINE - The organizing meeting will be Monday May 19 at 7 PM at the Pender County Library Hampstead branch: 17135 US Highway 17 N Hampstead, NC 28443.
The meeting on May 19 may have to be moved. The meeting room only holds 35 by law. If the meeting can not be moved to another location, the speakers could use the gazebo outside & the audience would have to stand outside. Hopefully, a larger facility can be found by Monday.
I’ll have to take time off from work to attend the organizing meeting, so please let me know the definite location, time, etc.
I would like to know which NHC commissioner voted against the project.
Ok, I found in the WSN that Nancy Pritchett was the only one to vote against it. It is a shame that she finished last in the primary. Jason Thompson is a candidate that initially appears to be against Titan coming here.
I wasn’t able to make it to the meeting last night. The articles in the paper make this sound like it’s a done deal and that Titan has bought land already. I searched the county website for land in their name, but haven’t found anything yet. Does anyone know the exact site where they are planning on building? The newspaper said it was the site of an old cement plant but I can’t seem to come up with anything. It’d be nice to have some info before the Commissioners meeting on the 2nd and the Planning commission meeting on the 5th.
Thank you guys for setting up this site to help band the opponents of Titan together. I live in Castle Hayne and Titan is a major concern to me. I am willing to help anyway I can.
Exactly where is Titan planning to build? I heard early on that Titan owned a small parcel of land on the Cape Fear River but I cannot find this parcel through the NHC site.
one good way to stop cement production…..stop using cement. until then stop passing the buck to poorer comunities/countries to produce your waste for you.
I’ve witnessed the defoliation of the Northeast River since 1965. GE and Hercules were the first polluters with foaming wastes in creeks and rice fields. As a pilot, I can assure you that an aerial view of the defoliation is chilling evidence for this cause.
I really need to speak to the lady that was the information keeper and/or the guy that gave the presentation and spoke against the Titan Project. I think I might have plenty of input that might be useful.
Plus, there are a plethora of e-mails that are circulating with ideas about the Titan Project and possible planning action to organize and stop the project. This needs to stop, New Hanover county commissioners do not need to know before hand what to prepare for or avoid in public discussion during the permitting process. Stop forwarding you complete e-mail, just the public notices and then the stoptitan.org site. I know personally that Bill Castor, Kopp and every other government official in New Hanover county is getting these e-mails forwarded to them. This cannot be the best thing for the stoptitan.org movement.
Also remind me in an e-mail to link you to the most powerful person in America today (per Smithsonian and wide acclaim) that opposes big polluting businesses in small minority communities.
This could be huge, I know every mercury affected child should be a huge cause!
hey i just want to let everyone know or reiterate about the fundraiser at katy’s on college rd. june 8th from 5 to 9. the organix and another great local band called airlie airs are kind enough to donate their time and talent. the owners of katy’s are letting us have this for free and donating a portion of sales.ther will be a $10 donation cover charge there will also be an auction including surfboards,gear,restaraunt and spa gift certificates etc. one way to help this cause would be to donate a little cash. i am working on setting up an account for the funds which will be used to further this cause through all forms of media to hopefully include billboards. i want to create a permanent non-profit called the greencaost initiative. i’ll let everyone know when that happens and please try to come to the fundraiser and bring anyone you can, good times for a good cause.
John In Hampstead can you contact us directly at contactus@stoptitan.org. Thank you!
Keith Norris - We need help organizing a community discussion about the risks of cement manufacturing in Castle Hayne. Titan and the commissioners have one scheduled for June 12th. Can you reach me immediately if you can help find a place and time as well as get people out. contactus@stoptitan.org
Laura Rezeek - The land is right next to already heavily polluting Elementis. You can mapquest it at 6411 Holly Shelter Rd, Castle Hayne, NC. We may add a map of the with actual boundary lines of the property and proposed destruction of wetlands.
Hi y’all,
I’ve been through exactly what you folks are facing right now. Get a copy of the company’s application, and read every word of it. I guarantee you that there is plenty of smoke and mirrors within.
And don’t fight this thing on strictly environmental grounds. The downside impact on your local economy is a valid and important issue. Take a look at other cement towns around the country– it’s not a pretty picture.
You people are so full of yourselvs and not in my backyard attitude. Were do you think things are made that we all use in day to day life? We can not get all our needs form China. We need jobs and things. Go get a life !!! Not all jobs are service related to people that have moved to the area. But all people may need a house,driveway and roads to go to the store . these things are not possible without CONCRETE and people working …. PS your save the EARTH lightbulbs have mercy in them also.
Henry,
Thanks for your alternate view. There is no dearth of cement or concrete in the world. Demand in the U.S. has been on the decline for the last few years, thanks in large part to the downturn in the economy and housing boom. Moreover, cement companies have been gobbling each other up for years, thanks in part to plentiful supply, both here and overseas. Also, I see nothing wrong with a NIMBY attitude. In fact, it’s the only way we’re going to be able to clean up the existing cement plants and force them to adhere to increasingly strict regulations on their toxic emissions. I’ve got nothing against attracting good jobs, but clean, green jobs are the ones to go for and they needn’t require a PhD. or everybody working at Starbucks. It’s the new economy we should be courting–not the old.
And yes, there is a tiny amount of mercury in a CFC–that can be recovered and recycled–but swapping out one traditional bulb with a CFC will save us from burning 500 pounds of coal over its lifetime along with the mercury that coal will emit in the environment. Besides, CFC’s are just a transition to LED bulbs, which use even less energy and have no mercury. So it’s all good.
There is one thing I would like to bring to your attention about the Roanoke Cement plant on the river in Castle Hayne. When the plant was built decades ago, there was a cemetery located on that land that had Hansleys and Casteens buried there. When the cement plant was built, they took up the headstones, and moved them over to Martin Marietta property on Blossom Ferry Road. The bodies were left behind, and the cement plant was built on their graves. Such disgraceful treatment of a burial ground would not be tolerated today. It’s too bad we can’t use that against Titan!
At Katy’s I saw wonderful photos of the wetlands Titan wants to build on. Seeing how beautiful this area is made whole thing more real. The more people who can see this place, the better. Can you give directions in addition to the map?
It might be helpful to show these on the website, or even a billboard with a projected comparison of what it looks like now and what it would look like after Titan.
IF the Titan business MEETS ALL ENVIROMENTAL permits, isn’t it a GOOD business?? OR, if everyone believes that it is still bad if it meets the standards, THEN the problem is with the STATE and FED REGS, NOT TITAN, right??
Great article… and don’t forget the benefits that planting a tree will have on the environment. Each one will soak up 20kgs of CO2 every year and put enough Oxygen back in the atmosphere to support 2 people.
I own land adjacent to the site that Titan is proposing to setup a new plant and am concerned that the Corp of Engineers never notified me unitl after the initial meeting had passed. I feel that there is a sort of deception occurring concerning this plant and process. I have canoed on the creek (Island Creek) many times and do not see how they can expand the quarry with affecting endangered species that are native to that area. When the original plant was shut down the Endangered Species Act was not in place. Therefore they should not be allowed to expand the quarry. I think that the real thing that is occurring here is that Martin-Marietta mining is out of room on their orginal site and this proposed plant is a ruse. Titan will take the process to the point of gaining approval to expand the quarry and then citing economic reasons drop building the actual plant and hand the quarry rights to Martin. The actual risks of building a new kiln on that site are great considering that the site is bordered by the Cape Fear river and Island Creek. The blasting that currently occurs on the site, and what would be required to expand the quarry could open a fissure to the surface water and fill the quarry. Their geologists know this and therefore they probably will discontinue the process after they have succeeded in obtaining rights to expand the quarry. Martin already has their operation in place and will readily buy the mining rights. Martin probably did not want to try to expand the quarry due the opposition from environmentalists that they have experienced in the past. Martin does not have a good environmental track record either. Everyone will think that they have won when Titan backs off and yet nobody will have noticed that Martin can continue mining. Another thing that I think supports my theory is that the existing plant and kiln will have to be largely demolished due to the fact that it was built prior to Clean Air Act, and CO2 awarness of today. Add to the cost of demolition cleanup of toxic materials such as Asbestos that is on the site and Titan would be better off to go across the road and buy the area recently burned in the forest fire. Should Titan proceed with the process I would hope that the NC DENR will be notified about the site and cleanup required during and prior to the demolition. Without this cleanup contamination could find it’s way into the River and affect all of Wilmington’s water.
Thank you for your help which I hope is forthcoming.
Allan, We will take your submission into account. If you would like to be more involved in the process, just send us an e-mail to contactus@stoptitan.org or call 800-852-5593 and leave a message.
We will typically respond within 24 hours. Good luck.