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Okay people, despite all the calls, emails, and letters to public officials asking them to require Titan Cement to follow the law and undergo a State Environmental Policy Act review before they get any state permit, the Department of Air Quality has ignored citizens’ concerns and will issue Titan a Draft Air Permit today, Friday, September 11. It’s sadly fitting that the saddest day in recent history for our nation will also be remembered as the day our public officials bowed to pressure from corporate lobbyists and sold the health of our kids, seniors, and economy down our mercury-impaired river. It reminds me of the former New York City firefighter who recently wrote a letter to the Star-News opposing Titan—a man who risked his life in the twin towers, inhaled the dust and particulate matter, and now has to fight for his breath for the rest of his life for the heroic service he provided his city and his nation. Or the wounded Army Veteran who limped around the legislature building in Raleigh with parents, doctors, and businessmen, to support Senator Julia Boseman’s moratorium bill—only to be shouted out of the committee room by Titan’s legislative allies. But like the tragic event eight years ago, it should also motivate us to take back control of our community, our future, and our destiny.
No longer can you stand quietly by and say, oh those StopTitan folks, the CoastKeeper, the RiverKeeper, and PenderWatch, among other groups, will take care of this. No longer can you simply hope the regulators will stop this thing. If you:
Don’t like the fact that $4.2 million of your taxes are being spent to bring a heavy polluting industry to your community without your consent or even a decent chance for you to comment… Aren’t crazy about the fact that your child will attend school 1.6 miles from a plant that will spew mercury, arsenic, hydrochloric acid, and particulate matter 24/7 for the next 30 years… Are worried about an industry that will take millions of gallons a day out of the aquifer you drink from—the same industry suspected of contaminating a similar aquifer at its other mine in Florida with carcinogenic benzene... Are not crazy about an additional 376 large dump trucks per day sharing our rural roads with school buses and local traffic, or the routine blasting and large equipment noise going on day and night… Are one of the 80,000 or so citizens of New Hanover County suffering from heart disease, diabetes, asthma, or other respiratory ailments, and aren’t crazy about Titan’s air pollution exacerbating your condition or that of your children…
Then do something about it. Get ten of your friends to sign up for action alerts and ask them to sign up ten more (http://stoptitan.org/subscribe). The release of the Draft Air Permit will open up a 45-day comment period in which we need to flood DAQ with letters about this plant. We’ll need thousands to attend the public meeting DAQ will hold, now tentatively scheduled for October 20 at Cape Fear Community College (we’ll send you the details when they are finalized). Apparently it takes more than 240 doctors and 3,000 petitioners, and numerous experts to sway our politicians’ mind, so the more people we can sign up the better chance we’ll have to counter Titan’s eight high-paid lobbyists. Let’s create a 50,000 citizen StopTitan army that the politicians and regulators cannot ignore!
In the meantime, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Duke Center for Environmental Policy—representing the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Cape Fear RiverWatch, and Pender Watch-- have submitted a formal legal request to Governor Perdue and the Secretary of Administration for a ruling on why Titan is receiving $4.2 million in public money and not having to follow SEPA [see: http://www.southernenvironment.org/newsroom/press_releases/nc_asked_for_eis_on_titan_cement_plant_9_10_09/]. We’ll keep you apprised of the ensuing legal challenge as details emerge. StopTitan.org/Friends of the Lower Cape Fear is one of the major donors in this legal fight and we will need your donations to pay for experts and legal fees. If you feel so motivated, go to the website and make a Paypal donation to the cause today.
In a county that already has some of the highest toxic emissions in the state, that just built our newest school 700 feet from a Superfund Site, and with Progress Energy’s new scrubbers for the coal-fired Sutton Power Plant now tabled, it’s clear our city, county, and state officials have no problem turning our community into a heavy industrial corridor.
Don’t let it happen. It’s time to get your game on and join us in this critical fight for the future of our Cape Fear region.
Your Friends and Neighbors at:
StopTitan.org/Friends of the Lower Cape Fear 
The Future of Castle Hayne? TXI-Riverside cement plant, in Riverside, Calfornia, which emitted cement kiln dust and hexavalent chromium on nearby neighborhoods for years. It also took years of citizen complaints before before state and federal regulators cracked down on the plant's toxic emissions. 
Dust warning at the Riverside plant
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