Tag Archives: Titan America Cement Plant

Southern Environmental Law Center

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homepage-coalash-lawsuitMoore Charitable Foundation met with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) team in Chapel Hill, NC (Derb Carter, Annie Stafford, Geoff Gisler, Nick Torrey, and Frank Holleman) to discuss their 5 year fight against the proposed Titan America Cement Plant. If built, this plant would destroy nearly 1,000 acres of wetlands and act as a major new source of mercury pollution to the already contaminated Cape Fear River. Titan has consistently avoided public disclosure and evaded a comprehensive review of environmental health effects.  Allowing the construction of Titan would not only ensure pollution and threaten human health in the region but also set a horrible precedent by allowing Titan to bypass laws and ignore environmental regulations. SELC is currently engaged in 3 law suits working to prevent air quality regulators from illegally lowering the hurdles for Titan.  We must stand up against unnecessary pollution and hold local agencies accountable for decisions that will affect our health and environment for years to come.

Cape Fear River Watch

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Recently, we had a great meeting with Kemp Burdette, Executive Director of Cape Fear River Watch, a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, in Wilmington, NC, to discuss why we must stop the Titan America Cement plant. Titan’s proposed plant would be a major new source of air and water pollution adversely impacting the citizens of Wilmington. For your future health and that of your children, please sign CFRW’s petition to Stop Titan.

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We also discussed the appalling issue of hog and chicken farm waste generated by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) – aka factory farms -in the Cape Fear River Basin. As we learned from Kemp, “There are more factory farms in the Cape Fear River Basin than any other place on planet Earth. There are over 5 million hogs, over 16 million turkeys, and 300 million chickens produced annually in the Cape Fear Basin.” He added, “The pollution discharge from both swine and poultry CAFOs is enormous. These discharges contain nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, heavy metals such as copper, toxic gases including methane, hydrogen-sulfide and ammonia and deadly bacteria and viruses such as MRSA and salmonella. Regulation and oversight of CAFOs is almost nonexistent.”

Scientific studies conducted at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and at the North Carolina State Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology have established significant degradation to the middle and lower Cape Fear River from the vast amounts of raw, untreated animal waste that runs into waterways from swine and poultry factory farms every day.  In addition, CAFOs lead to human health issues including increased tolerance to antibiotics due to high doses fed to animals to keep them alive in the filthy conditions.

The Moore Charitable Foundation is proud to partner with CFRW in their efforts to stop Titan and CAFO pollution.