Environmental groups on Wednesday asked the courts to decide whether a controversial cement plant planned for the North Carolina coast should have a full review of how it will affect air, land and water before the state awards it permits.
Titan America wants to build a plant in New Hanover County that would produce up to 2.4 million tons of cement a year. Production would include heating raw materials - mostly limestone mined nearby - in a coal-fired kiln. The plant would release toxins such as mercury, benzene and hydrogen chloride.
The state Division of Air Quality, part of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is preparing a permit for the company that puts limits on toxins coming from its smokestack. But it does not consider what the chemicals would do to land and water near the plant.
The project will require separate approvals from state water quality regulators and the federal government.
Environmental groups have long contended that looking at the plant's environmental impacts one at a time is illegal.
"They're not going to get a look at the whole picture," said Geoffrey R. Gisler, attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, based in Chapel Hill. "It's not going to be a complete review as it goes forward."
New Hanover County and the state offered the cement company incentives to build the plant at Castle Hayne and create 160 full-time jobs. The county promised the company $4.2 million in incentives, and the state is putting up $300,000.
Environmental groups maintain that since public money is committed to the project, the plant must go through an extensive environmental review before it receives permits. The state, including the Department of Administration, disagreed.
W. Kevin McLaughlin Jr., the department's general counsel, wrote in a decision last month that state law does not require a full environmental review until public money is spent on the project. And he said Titan will not receive any public money until it receives all its permits.
Environmental groups, including the N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Fear River Watch, and PenderWatch & Conservancy, want a Wake Superior Court judge to review that decision.
