• Reach the Beach 2010
• Titan Update
  

Reach the Beach 2010

A big Thank You to all the Sponsors, volunteers, participants, vendors, and musicians that came out to support this year’s Reach The Beach event! What a great day!

We’ve posted all the names of folks who helped make this year’s event such a huge success on the stoptitan.org website. We're collecting photos too, so please check it out and send some if you got 'em. Not only did the Reach the Beach bring the community together for fun in the sun, but it also raised around $10,000 dollars for the cause!

Titan Update

Judge Stephen’s recent court ruling ordering Titan to follow SEPA has left many wondering what’s next in this fight? It’s safe to say Titan doesn’t pay their lawyers and lobbyist to sit around and do nothing, so we expect there will be some news within a couple of weeks about where this fight is headed. Will Titan appeal? Will Governor Perdue support the court order invoking SEPA and stand by our community’s repeated pleas to assess all impacts from this heavy pollution industry BEFORE any permits are issued? This is a critical time for our community and we need to make sure our voices are heard on this important ruling. So, here’s what we’re asking you to do:

Call or write Governor Perdue today. Ask her point blank if she’s going to support the recent court ruling. Ask her if she’s going to stand with our community or allow Titan to re-write our laws. Remember, Titan is trying to spin this as a debate about jobs when it’s really a debate about big polluters trying to avoid a critical environmental review. It’s about knowing exactly how this one industry will impact the economic drivers of our coastal region: our local fishing and tourism industries; our drinking water, our local wildlife and wetlands; the children who attend schools nearby; and the quality of life we all enjoy. Remember, the cement industry is the 3^rd largest source of industrial pollution in the nation and the 4^th largest source of mercury, according to the EPA.

We’re not talking about a flower farm—we’re talking about 50 years or more of open-pit mining and toxic air emissions in our Cape Fear region. Just turn on the TV and look at the devastation caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Big corporations know how to use their money and political influence to get around important environmental reviews and regulations. Time is money, delays worry investors, and pollution controls cut into profits, so companies like Titan and BP use their political connections to avoid strict regulations and environmental reviews that will delay their projects. Just look at Titan’s draft air permit. Despite repeated claims that they will have the cleanest plant in the US, their permit doesn’t even comply with the stricter emission standards that will be finalized by the EPA in less than a month. Why? Because it will cost them money and they’re hoping lobbyists for the Portland Cement Association—which has a Titan officer on its board--can convince EPA to weaken the proposed regulations. It’s not that Titan can’t comply with the Federal laws---it’s that they don’t want to comply. It’s the same issue locally. It’s not that Titan can’t comply with SEPA, they simply don’t want to---so guess who has to force them? We do. The lawyers working on behalf of our community from the Southern Environmental Law Center and Duke Environmental Law & Policy Clinic have won this important first round in the legal battle to force Titan to comply with the state environmental policy act. Now, it’s our turn.

Please call or write Governor Perdue today. If you call, ask to speak to one of her policy advisers and ask specifically if the Governor intends to support the recent court order on SEPA. If you are writing a letter, ask the same question and make sure you ask for a reply.

Mailing Address for Governor Bev Perdue:

Governor Bev Perdue
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
Phone: (919)733-4240
Fax: (919)733-2120

And letters to the editor always help keep the issue out front so when you have a minute, pen a letter to one or all of the following papers:

Links for sending letters to local and state papers:

Star News online Opinion

News & Observer Opinion

Charlotte Observer Opinion

Until the next update, keep up the fight. And as always, a great big THANK YOU for taking the time and effort to make the Cape Fear Region a better place to live.

Your Friends at:
StopTitan.org / Friends of the Lower Cape Fear

• Lawyers, Puns, and Money!
• Earth Day at Hugh MacRae!
• Register to Run (or walk) at Reach the Beach!
• Your Dough in Action: New Billboard and Belly Ad!
  

April 14, 2010…Wake County Superior Court…the Honorable Judge Donald Stephens presiding…

The War of Words has begun. On Wednesday afternoon, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens heard oral arguments from lawyers on both sides of the Titan/SEPA issue before ruling on a motion by Titan and the State to dismiss the case. Two lawyers from the Attorney General's office representing the Department of Administration and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and two lawyers representing Titan, defended the state’s decision to remove State Environmental Policy Act requirements from the Titan project. [SEPA originally applied to the Titan project, but was dropped, if you recall, after a closed-door meeting between Titan’s lawyers and lobbyists and DENR officials]. Titan’s council took it a step further, asking that all references to environmental impacts from the Titan project be struck from Court documents because, they claimed, there was “no relevance” to this case. Their motion was denied.

Lawyers Geoff Gisler and Derb Carter (Southern Environmental Law Center) and Michelle Nowlin (Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic) maintained that building a massive, coal-burning cement plant and open-pit mine in our coastal area is exactly the type of project SEPA was designed to address. They asked that Judge Stephens reverse DOA’s ruling and re-apply SEPA to the Titan project so that all cumulative impacts are assessed and made public before any state permits are issued.

At one point, Judge Stephens asked all the lawyers if they agreed the proposed Titan cement project will have a negative environmental impact. Our team obviously agreed, and even the lawyers for DENR and DOA conceded that it had the potential to do so. Only Titan’s lawyers refused to acknowledge the obvious: that the fourth largest cement plant in the nation, which would spew thousands of tons of toxic emissions into our air and destroy a thousand acres or more of wetlands would have a significant environmental impact on our region. (Which makes you wonder what, if anything, they would consider an environmental impact.)

Judge Stephens promised to make his decision in about a week or so after he reviewed proposed rulings from all the attorneys. So stay tuned for more updates on the legal drama. You can read more coverage of the case in the News & Observer, the Star News, and Lumina News.

Come Celebrate Earth Day and Register for Reach the Beach!

Join us this Saturday (April 17, from 12 – 6 pm) at Hugh MacRae Park for the annual Earth Day celebration! We’ll have a Friends of the Lower Cape Fear/Stoptitan.org table set up with stacks of bumper stickers, yard signs, and flyers to pass around, as well as registration forms and information about the upcoming Reach the Beach 5K Race/1 Mile Family Fun Walk on May 8th. [You can also register online at www.reachthebeach2010.com.] As always, all tax-deductible donations and proceeds go directly to the fight to stop Titan Cement. So drop by the table to chat, register and pick up a bumper sticker and yard sign for you and all your neighbors. No self-respecting New Hanoverian home should be without one! Parking can be crazy, so try leaving the mini-van in the old Cinema 6 lot next to Tidal Creek, off Oleander Drive and take the Earth Day Shuttle, which will run continuously from noon to 6:30 pm.

New Raleigh Billboard and Full-Page Ad!

 In our continuing efforts to take the Titan fight to Raleigh, we’ve plastered a new billboard—replete with big fuming smokestacks-- on Capital Blvd South, so all those legislators heading into downtown Raleigh can see it. Click here to check it out. We’ve also moved our I-40 Doctor’s Billboard further west. It now appears around Exit 325, heading on I-40 West, just past the Benson interchange (where I-95 and I-40 meet). And finally, for the Mother’s Day month of May, we have a full-page ad in Raleigh’s Natural Awakenings magazine. We affectionately call it, “the belly ad,” which sends a powerful message about the danger of mercury exposure to children in the womb. Click here to see what we mean. Feel free to download a copy and hand it out or paste it in your workplace.

Vote Early, Vote Often…Starting May 4th!

And don’t forget to find out where each of the candidates stand on the Titan issue before you vote in the primary on May 4th. Go to the County Board of Elections links below to find out who is running and how to reach ‘em!

New Hanover County Board of Elections—Candidate Filings

http://www.nhcgov.com/AgnAndDpt/ELCT/Pages/2010DailyCandidateFilings.aspx

Pender County Board of Elections

http://www.pendercountync.gov/Government/Departments/BoardofElections.aspx

Brunswick County Board of Elections

http://www.brunsco.net/Departments/BoardofElections/tabid/75/Default.aspx

That’s it for now. Lots going on, lots to do, and we need your help to keep it all moving forward. Ads, billboards, legal experts and bumper stickers don’t come cheap (okay, bumper stickers are pretty cheap), so please register now for Reach the Beach and plan to bring your family and join us on May 8^th for a day filled with great food, music and fun as we continue to fight for the future of our Cape Fear region.

See you there!
Your Friends and neighbors at Friends of the Lower Cape Fear