|
Toxic CTS Site Declared “No Imminent Hazard” by Buncombe CommissionersTOP
Residents near the heavily solvent contaminated former CTS facility in south Buncombe County have organized the group Clean Asheville, and have been calling for an enforceable and unlimited cleanup by the industry under the direction of EPA and the NC Dept. of Environment of Natural Resources. In addition to extremely high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination found seeping up in water at and near the site, an increasing number of drinking water wells have shown contamination in recent rounds of testing. One well’s TCE contamination has doubled to 1500 parts per million just since the previous round. Aaron Penland and other advocates recently called on the County Commissioners to help extend drinking water lines to residents using contaminated wells in the community near Skyland. They were told that the situation wasn’t urgent enough for the County to fund the line extensions. Instead, Commissioners are writing to state officials to move forward with a more limited “voluntary” clean up. The City of Asheville has offered to extend water lines in areas of contamination, but not to fund hookups. CWFNC will be working with the community group to focus on getting safe water for well users.
Anson County Starts Chloramine Treatment, Health Concerns ReportedTOP
The most common and affordable drinking water disinfection strategy for public water supplies that violate the federal standard for “trihalomethanes” is to switch from chlorine to chloramine treatment. Water customers are warned that the chloramine-treated water could be dangerous for fish tanks without filtration and for medically delicate conditions. Though chloramine has been used by some suppliers for decades, there’s been little study of human health effects. As reported in Deb Arnason’s commentary in our summer issue, an increasing number of customers on chloramine-treated water systems report severe rashes, respiratory distress and other symptoms, getting relief only by changing water sources. Arnason has switched to well water, but remains concerned for her community. Recently she presented her concerns to the Anson County Commissioners, but was told she was the only one with complaints, so she’s preparing a petition to County and federal officials. EPA scientist Dr. Susan Richardson says there appears to be a significant subpopulation that is sensitive to chloramine and its byproducts, but that there’s not enough research to determine the extent and cause of reported problems. If your water supplier is disinfecting water with chloramine, visit the website of Concerned Citizens Against Chloramine, chloramine.org. Report any problems to info@cwfnc.org.
Titan Cement: EPA Raises Concerns, Gov. Perdue Seeks InvestigationTOP
Wilmington - The Stop Titan Action Network (STAN, stoptitan.org) has organized a network of over 200 physicians in opposition to the proposed cement plant, which would be the fourth largest in the US, and a massive flow of calls and comments on the draft Title V air permit for the facility, drawing ever-wider concern about the permit and the regulatory process.
Earlier this fall, EPA commented that the newly permitted facility could contribute significantly to air quality violations in the region. As EPA develops long-overdue standards for cement plant operations, including mercury and other toxic emissions, federal regulators pointed out that the draft permit doesn’t incorporate the proposed stricter standards. NC Air Quality officials have the authority to apply those pending standards, and the haste to grant this permit and even exempt the permit from SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review appear to indicate strong bias toward industry in the agency, as many environmental advocates have charged.
Gov. Perdue responded to letters and calls from whistleblowers and activists with a request for investigation of the permitting process by the State Bureau of Investigation. We’re not convinced that this is the appropriate body to investigate “undue influence,” or if they will be politically able to make that determination in the face of previous state and local incentives for the project, but it’s a start. The call for temporary halt in all permitting for the facility is critical, too. Without it, Titan could invest heavily in starting construction under a weak permit, making the barriers to stopping the project even more difficult.
Titan officials claim the plant would create hundreds of new jobs in a down economy, but neighborhood surveys carried out close to the proposed site by Stop Titan and CWFNC earlier this year showed much greater concern for the environmental safety of their families than support for speculative jobs.
Banks Creeks Citizens Win for Trout Streams, Downstream Communities TOP
Burnsville—More than 15 years after they started protesting against damaging mountaintop golf course construction, Nancy Hensley and her neighbors have won a clear victory against the agency that permitted much of the damage done by Mountain Air Golf Development Corp. In 2001, local residents formed “Banks Creek Citizens for Clean Water.” They approached CWFNC for assistance in preparing for a public hearing on a “water quality certification” for Mountain Air to disturb trout streams in expanding their golf course. Later, CWFNC and the Banks Creek group filed a “contested case” against the weak permit, and brought lots of adverse media attention to Mountain Air.
We got a ground-breaking settlement in 2003, requiring ongoing monitoring, notification of residents when inspections were to be done, and stipulated penalties. Also in 2003, Mountain Air was granted a “trout buffer variance” by another branch of DENR, the Division of Land Resources, to disturb the 25-foot buffer on both sides of thousands of feet of a stream they wanted to put in a pipe, to make room for their golf greens. Again, CWFNC, Nancy, and other Banks Creek folks filed a contested case. State law says such variances can only be granted where the applicant shows that the disturbance will be “temporary and minimal.” Mountain Air had claimed that because the stream would be in a pipe, they would meet this standard! The judge agreed with us that this was absurd, that a trout stream didn’t lose protection because it was placed in a pipe, and that the variance must be denied.
For almost a year, no more trout buffer variances were granted, and golf developers all over western NC were furious. The Sediment and Erosion Commission, however, overturned that decision in 2007, so the variance was back. Since that time, CWFNC and our Banks Creek allies have appealed the case first to the Wake County Superior Court and then to the Court of Appeals. A strongly worded Nov. 17 decision makes it clear that the variance should never have been granted, and that the subsequent activities by Mountain Air were clear violations of state law. Due to bad agency decisions along the way, much of the Banks Creek headwaters is already damaged and piped. Restoration would be expensive and may cause more downstream damage, so the parties are reviewing their options. But the message to the state agency is loud and clear: stop granting permits that deliberately misinterpret state laws in order to serve the interests of rapacious developers. In other words, don’t grant this kind of variance again, unless it’s REALLY temporary and minimal.
Our heartfelt thanks to attorney John Runkle, and to the attorneys of the Southern Environmental Law Center for their great work on this prolonged case. But it was the sheer determination, great research and documentation, and dogged organizing by Banks Creek Citizens that started the ball rolling and kept up the fight— CONGRATULATIONS and three cheers for all the years of hard work…you’re an example to communities everywhere!
Coharie Hog Operation Declares
Bankruptcy; “Who’ll clean up the mess??” TOP
Oxford—Granville County’s Environmental Advisory
Committee has released a powerful new report on the application
of sewage sludge on 12% of the county’s agricultural
land. Only five counties, Orange, Davie, Harnett, Robeson
and Union, have more acres permitted for sludge application,
which often includes heavy metals, persistant toxic compounds
and pathogens, with occasional analyses required for only
nine toxins out of thousands likely to be present. The study’s
authors, Committee Chair Brenda Currin and project investigator
Neil Gresham (whose family farm is adjacent to major sludge
applications), found that neither the state nor EPA monitors
these applications for contaminants or timing and that staffing
and testing are completely inadequate to protect the waters
to which these fields drain, or the health of farmland for
future crops or grazing. The report concludes that the county
should establish a local monitoring and enforcement program
and strengthen and fully implement its own ordinance to protect
county residents, landowners and the future of our water quality
and agriculture.
Last updated 3-3-2010 |
