New federal regulations on cement-plants' emissions of toxic mercury, issued this week by the EPA in Washington, D.C., will have a concrete effect - and a beneficial one - in North Carolina.
Notably, Titan America's plans for a big new Portland cement plant near Wilmington will have to be modified to comply with much tougher air-quality regulations - or those plans won't make it off the drawing board.
Either way, the Wilmington region escapes the worst consequences of the grant of financial incentives to Titan that local and state officials unwisely made in 2008, when they focused more on the jobs the coal-burning plant would bring than on its potential for environmental harm.
Under the new rules, existing cement plants in the U.S. will have until 2013 to reduce emissions of mercuy and other harmful substances, and new plants must comply with the regulations from the start. The facility envisioned at Castle Hayne (on the site of an abandoned cement-making plant) would be one of the nation's largest.
Because the location is especially sensitive - waters of the nearby Cape Fear river are already at their maximum for toxic mercury - opponents of Titan's plans have focused on that issue. The possibility of adverse air- and water-quality problems, coupled with the granting of state incentives, led a judge in Raleigh to rule earlier this year that Titan's plans would have to undergo a comprehensive review. The company is appealing that ruling.
Even if it succeeds in overturning the judge's decision, Titan faces other environmental reviews. And now, thanks to new, science-based and long-studied new rules, any cement-making plant that is eventually built will go easier on the region's health.
