Should the state approve the air permit for a cement plant in New Hanover County?

don't stop sitting on your tumb, to applaud anything

You have a valid point. Normally, this would be the general outcome. But if you resign to that end of course it will be the outcome. We must keep trying harder and harder!

"Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

"Act as if what you do makes a difference.It does." ~William James

"If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito." ~Betty Reese

You are WRONG Shawn. We CAN and WILL win this fight.......

vote no to titan - this is OUR community

Our area has too much pollution already! Let's not make a bad situation even worse! I vote no!

Our vote is a resounding NO! Titan has attempted to subvert every step in the permitting process, spent millions of dollars to buy our lawmakers, hoodwinked local public and private officials , and really has only one goal -- their bottom line. When I read about how Titan they will "follow all steps in the regulatory process," and then learn how far they will go to avoid ALL steps, I am revolted. This foreign corporation has NO business building their toxin-spewing behemoth in our beautiful community and putting our health at risk. We were utterly astounded and disgusted with those in the air-permitting business who let this latest step go forward. WHERE IS THEIR INTEGRITY??? HOW MUCH HAS TITAN PAID THEM????

I VOTE NO for Titan in this area, due to the air quality and mercury.

Those" plants" (only one of which was even an actual plant ) PALE in comparison to THE 4TH LARGEST CEMENT PLANT IN THEUNITED STATES. The environmental implications and the health implications of a plant this size would blow your mind IF you would take the time to understand them. Please please take the time to learn the real story and have a real understanding of this. If you love this community then you owe it to yourself and your neighbors.

I think that the pollution that you have already processed into your system has already done damage to your brain.

you clearly have no idea of how an ecosystem works and what it can do to the nature in the area. try talking with a few doctors and marine biologists in the area and ask to see their scientific evidence of what a cement plant can do. you might think twice when you can no longer breath or drink the water.

We actually had just one cement plant here, which closed in the early 80's. The section of the Cape Fear River near the plant is now mercury contaminated - most likely from the Ideal plant. I also have spoken with many people who lived near that plant and can still remember the blasting that went on day and night and the cement dust that was all over everything. One 3rd generation farmer told me about how he remembers no one would buy his father's produce because it was covered with the dust. We've never done a health study of the area, so who knows what damage was done there. Most importantly, as the fourth largest cement plant in the nation, the old Ideal plant would be dwarfed by Titan, with a 500 ft smokestack (the Statue of Liberty is 152 ft) emitting much greater amounts of pollutants and toxins than anything else here - with a much more densely populated county. Their mine would cover over 1000 acres of wetlands and be over 70 ft deep - potentially depleting and contaminating our water supply. A judge in Florida ordered a mine closed at Titan's plant down there because of evidence Titan leaked benzene (a carcinogen) into area wells - All the regulations in the world can't take that benzene out of the water supply, can it? Our county is facing unacceptable levels of sulfur dioxide and ground level ozone from those "other plants" - the regulations haven't stop that from happening either. So Titan doesn't "abide" by the rules. There is a plethora of scientific and medical research that states the regulations do not do enough to protect the citizens from emissions by these heavy polluters and that our children are especially susceptible. I and many others have been to Washington to work on better legislation at the nation level.While there, I have met the people who already live under these smokestacks and they ARE the "know it alls" because they are living with the reality every day of what we are warning about here. I would suggest YOU do your research, you will find that the negatives far outweigh any positives (a measly 40 jobs) that Titan could possibly bring.

I can understand your viewpoint if you are not aware of the environmental pollution these industries cause to the environment. We already have lots of mercury and arsenic pollution in Wilmington waters. Yes, these companies have permits to pollute because the government allows them too. The issue is the pollution ends up in the environment, (soil, water and air) and since we are at the top of the food chain we consume everything that is polluted. The vegetables we grow pick it up from the soil; the oysters are bottom feeders and pick it up from the much and water. Ask the oncologist docs if cancer is unusually high in Wilmington and you will probably get a yes to that answer, particularly brain cancer in young children and adults. Wilmington is at the end of the line to many polluters dumping into the Cape Fear River (many of us drink water from the Cape Fear River collected near Elizabeth town) hence this is a problem. We don't need mercury polluters here on the coast especially when they want to put Titan directly over a drinking water source, the Castle Hayne aquifer. The Greeks don't allow their own company Titan to operate in their country which is a coastal community b/c they know they pollute. Mercury polluters should not be place in a coastal community, period, end of story.

Are you serious? The cement plants of yesteryear were tiny compared to what Titan plans to do. And just because something was "okay" years ago, does not make it right now. Slavery. Child Labor. Need I go on? When we know better, we should do better.

As for research, clearly you have not been following this story. The research is there which is why more than 400 health professionals, including more than 200 local physicians, oppose this plant. Research and documentation are available at one convenient website: http://stoptitan.org/

Name calling is not really helpful. As for regulations, are you aware that at the same time Titan was promising to comply with regulations, they were lobbying Congress to lower the standards? Yes, this Greek company was lobbying our Congress to lower regulatory standards in our country - affecting our air, our water including The Cape Fear. So much for good citizenship.