Governor Bev Perdue has asked Attorney General Roy Cooper and the State Bureau of Investigation to look into potential wrongdoing associated with DENR's decision to issue Titan Cement a draft air permit and give the company a pass from the State Environmental Policy Act review.

“I have asked the attorney general’s office, the SBI, to see if there was any kind of — I don’t know the word, I’m not a lawyer — if there was anything that wasn’t aboveboard in the decision making, and I believe they will,” Perdue told the Washington Daily News on Saturday.

http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2009/11/22/news/doc4b08992060f1d896202917.txt

The move comes just two days after Raleigh-based political watchdog Joe Sinsheimer sent Perdue a widely publicized letter (PDF) asking governor to freeze all permits for the company for 90 days and investigate undue influence in the permitting and legislative process. It also came after the office of the governor and attorney general were flooded with calls from Titan opponents asking for justice on this issue. Perdue has yet to freeze any permits.

Your calls and letters are making a difference! Keep the pressure on! If you haven't already done so, call Governor Perdue (919-733-4240) and thank her for investigating Titan. Then ask her for a 90-day freeze on any permits until the results of the investigation are known. Then call Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office (919-716-6400) and request that he investigate undue political influence into the permitting process for Titan Cement AND its avoidance of the State Environmental Policy Act.

It's about time this process got some scrutiny from the law. We'll keep you posted.

Update: Perdue requests examination of cement plant permit

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Alex   |2009-11-23 19:29:47 So let me get this straight: in Florida, the US EPA, the US Geological Survey, the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Federal Judge William Hoeveler all have agreed on multiple occasions that the Titan America mining permits issued in 2002 are seriously flawed and threaten both the Everglades ecosystem and the Biscayne aquifer (the same aquifer which supplies drinking water for over one million people located next door in Miami, Florida). The day that our illustrious and always vigilant County Commission voted to give Titan America $4.2 million dollars to move to New Hanover County (talk about a great Welcome Wagon gift) the Titan American mines were closed for business. The mines had been shut down months earlier by federal court order. The mines were later allowed to reopen, but the original 2002 permit is still in contention for threats to the ecosystem, threats to the Biscayne aquifer, and an unfulfilled and inadequate mitigation plan. If this were not enough, the US EPA recently threw out a new permit application by Titan America for expanded mining in adjacent areas for the same reasons the 2002 original permit has not yet been validated and for some of the same concerns that the mines were shut down during parts of 2007 - 2008. Not to mention the citizens and elected officials of Miami Lakes, Florida who have publicly opposed the effects of limestone mining from the local cement companies on their community. So in Florida things do not look very good. In North Carolina Titan America has dodged NC SEPA despite promising to follow all environmental regulations and some cases "even exceed these regulations". Titan's legislative crew then pushed State legislators around, to the unheard of degree, that when mothers, children, scientists, business professionals, physicians, and committed local citizens took the day off to speak before a legislative committee of their elected officials on environmental and health concerns, these citizens were not even given five minutes of speaker time and were sent packing home over the boisterous "NO!" votes of the TItan supporters. And even though Titan America promised to meet and answer the tough questions with citizen groups and professionals before the County Commission vote on April 21, 2008, after the vote was cast, Titan America then refused to meet in open forums at UNCW, at the League of Women Voters, and at the New Hanover/Pender County Medical Society. Then it was found out that much of the land Titan America had planned to mine was located in restricted wetlands and could not be mined as had originally been planned and the original "brownfield" foot print of the mines would have to be expanded into surrounding non "brownfield" areas. Areas which contain non brownfield wetlands. Then is was found out that thousands of tons of toxic pollutants would be emitted on a yearly basis from the "no affect on the environment in any way, shape, or form" smokestack. Then it was found out that Titan America planned to incorporate mercury containing fly ash from Progress Energy into its raw materials. Calcination of this fly ash along with the mercury laden local limestone and mercury laden Appalachian coal may liberate as much as 262 lbs of mercury yearly into our local atmosphere. Of course Titan could build a plant using natural gas and leave the Progress energy fly ash out of the feed mix and reduce annual cement production to reasonable, not unsustainable and unreasonable levels, but these considerations were never on the table for discussion. Then is was found out that Titan America's Roanoke plant emits only 6 lbs of mercury yearly. Then it was found out that Titan's draft air quality permit does not meet the standards for mercury emissions and monitoring mandated in the newly proposed EPA regulations. Then it was found out that concerns about not mee... Reply | Quote 3 1

Laura Head   |2009-11-28 15:17:42 I don't know how I got on your mailing list, but I'm glad I am on it. You are doing a wonderful job fighting Titan and I am in awe of your research, organizational abilities, and being the bulldog-on-the-seat of Titan's pants that you are. A few weeks ago, I asked Si Cantwell to get someone on the newspaper staff to investigate the odd stuff going on in Raleigh about it and see if they couldn't get a Pulitzer out of it. It's a perfect topic for it and a stream of articles with the kind of information you have here would help our side win. Keep it up. Laura Head Reply | Quote 1 1

John Rosenfelt   |2009-12-20 05:47:57 this is actually kind of stupid. you will fight to keep a new environmentally respectful company from starting and supplying jobs and eco-freindly concrete to the infrastructure, as opposed to asphalt? And let the bigger non caring companies such as preferred and cemex (a mexican company, not american) and others who have not a care about the environment continue to operate in your state. Not exactly a smart move in the bigger spectrum of things Reply | Quote 5 1

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