Titan responds to activists’ appeal

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A cement maker that’s been working for years to build a plant in New Hanover County is responding to the latest legal challenge trying to stop it.

Yesterday the Southern Environmental Law Center announced it will appeal on behalf of several other environmental action groups what it called a judge’s ruling that would deny people the right to challenge air pollution permits.

Today the head of Carolinas Cement Company, a subsidiary of Titan America responded to the appeal.

“We take issue with the activists’ claims that this ruling prohibits North Carolina citizens from challenging our air permit, since they have challenged the air permit in the courts no less than four times in the past three years,” CCC General Manager Bob Odom said in a statement. “How often do the courts need to rule on this issue?”

According to the statement, a judge last month denied a request for a judicial review of Titan’s air permit issued by the NC Division of Air Quality in 2012.