Titan America, which seeks to build a big new cement-making plant near Wilmington, has decided that if a court has handed you lemons, make lemonade. Or rather, make cement.
The sour taste here - from the company's view - stems from a Wake County Superior Court decision requiring Titan's plans to undergo a comprehensive state environmental review. That's because Titan had been granted $4.5 million in incentives by New Hanover County and the state; that commitment of public money triggered a state requirement for wide-ranging review of the plant's effects.
Titan says it's willing to comply with all relevant environmental standards, including tougher new federal rules for cement plants, but that the comprehensive study would be a time-waster. So, in a bid to start cranking out cement by 2015, it has decided to throw the incentives overboard.
No incentives, no need for the comprehensive review. Sweet.
Except that cement making, as vital as it is for construction, and as welcome as the jobs at the Castle Hayne site would be, is a pollution-intensive process. From mining limestone deposits from wetlands near the river to burning as much coal as a small power plant, there are troubling effects on air, land and water, and potential harm to animals and people. Mercury pollution (from the heating of a limestone mix to produce cement) is serious stuff.
Examining the plant's various effects in one package - comprehensively - made perfect sense while Titan claimed the incentives. It still does. Gov. Beverly Perdue should stand up for the many Wilmington-area residents who have rallied against the plant. If their fears for the already mercury-intense Lower Cape Fear are to be put to rest, only a first-rate review of the plans will do.
No matter how "business friendly" the new General Assembly may prove to be, legislators and the Perdue administration should make sure that in any tradeoff between harm and benefit, the burden of proof lies squarely on those whose plans threaten a sensitive environment.
