SELC

The most effective environmental organization in America this week reported on the ten most endangered places in the southeast, three of which are here in North Carolina. Given the rampage in Raleigh, however, it would have been equally valid if they had named our entire state as an endangered place.

Thank goodness the Southern Environmental Law Center is on the job.

Conservation groups today asked the N.C. Environmental Management Commission to require Progress Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Carolinas to clean up groundwater contaminated by old, unlined coal ash lagoons at 14 coal-fired power plants that have been leaking toxic substances for decades. Coal ash is the toxic waste that remains after coal is burned. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the complaint with the EMC on behalf of the Cape Fear River Watch, Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Western North Carolina Alliance.

Worth reading.

Jay Leutze has written a book about a five-year battle in which the little guys go up against a mining company and state officals, and win. Leutze was living in Northwestern North Carolina, way out in the country. A non-practicing lawyer, he was working on a novel, when one day he received a phone call from an outraged fourteen year old neighbor, Ashley Cook. She told him that a mining company was intent on tearing down Bluevelt Mountain, which towers above their little town, and it was in direct violation of the Mining Act of 1971. She wanted Leutze, with his legal training, to join their cause. Leutze ascertained that she was right, and joined the fight. Stand Up That Mountain chronicles the journey this band of Appalachian Folk, Jay Leutze, and eventually lawyers for the Southern Environmental Law Center, against the mining company and state officials.

When it comes to using the power of the law to protect North Carolina's water, air and land, no organization does it better than the Southern Environmental Law Center. That's why I was so excited to get their announcement via email today, challenging the permit recently granted to Titan Cement. Titan, a foreign-owned business with a sordid history of putting profits over people, has tangled with the wrong people.

“By allowing the cement company to emit unnecessary and harmful levels of pollution, the state’s permit for Titan’s pollution fails residents and visitors of North Carolina and violates state and federal law,” said Geoff Gisler, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center who represents the groups. “Ignoring available pollution controls, the state granted Titan’s toxic recipe to pollute the air we all breathe.”

The full press release is below the fold.

You almost feel sorry for Bob Odom, the general manager of Titan Cement. He has the job of putting lipstick on a Titanic pig, and has found himself on the wrong side of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

If you don't know SELC, you should. They're one of the most effective environmental organizations in America, using the power of the law to kick butt and take names. In my view, they're brilliant.

StarNews has published a letter dated yesterday detailing the reasons why Governor Perdue should halt permitting for Titan Cement's Castle Hayne project:

Governor Perdue, with the recent scandals uncovered by the news media, the public has lost confidence in the objectivity of regulatory decisions by the Department of Energy and Natural Resources ("DENR"), and questions whether the agency is acting in the public interest.

I don't much care for Governor Perdue's tendency toward grandstanding, not so much because she shouldn't be using her bully pulpit in general, but because of the things she chooses to get excited about. For example, if you give her a chance to smackdown some felons serving life-sentences, she'll pull on her shit-kickers and start stompin' in a heartbeat. Doesn't matter what the law says, she's got her own reelection agenda and god help you if you stand in her way.

On the other hand, when a group of citizens asked the Governor to take a stand to preserve wetlands and ensure a healthy, safe environment by stopping a known source of mercury poisoning, the silence was deafening. Without so much as the illusion of thoughtfulness, Perdue has stood behind what is almost certainly an illegal permitting of the Titan Cement plant in New Hanover County.

Rejecting a request from several groups representing residents in the affected areas, Governor Perdue’s Department of Administration this week ruled that the full environmental impact of the proposed Titan America cement plant on surrounding areas--including New Hanover, Pender and Brunswick counties—does not need to be examined before North Carolina begins issuing permits for the plant.

One of the many useful theories taught in journalism school is the theory of agenda setting, first articulated by Dr. Donald Shaw at UNC Chapel Hill.

The agenda-setting theory is the theory that the mass news media have a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them.

One of the organization's I'm most proud to support is the Southern Environmental Law Center. Their lawyers are working on behalf of the NC Coastal Federation and Cape Fear River Watch to hold our state's policy makers accountable for their irresponsible permitting of this mega-polluter. Here's the story from the SELC website.

Citizens of North Carolina are paying $4.5 million to bring this company to the state and will endure the public health and environmental consequences of the plant’s pollution for decades; they deserve to know what they’re buying before Titan starts building,” said Geoff Gisler, attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center.

As some of you are probably aware, the battle over Titan Cement's new facility in Hanover County is still raging. Dozens of (medical) doctors have joined to voice their concern, as well as hundreds of citizens and a few of my favorite environmental orgs. Most recently, these groups pleaded with the NC Department of Administration to generate a formal review of Titan's application/permit, and the answer was, in a word, stupefying.