NC Conservation Network Blog

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House Bill 1410, if passed, will close a loophole that currently allows companies to skirt their environmental and public health responsibilities.

H1410 clarifies the definition of “public monies” so that development projects, like the Titan plant near Wilmington, NC, receive a proper review under the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA). The SEPA process requires, among other things, a completed and fully reviewed environmental impact statement. This is a great chance to close this loophole and give assurance to NC taxpayers that our investments are being used wisely and will not be harmful to our communities or public health.

Please send an email to your Senator asking them to support H1410!

Back in April, I posted an entry regarding NO PORT Southport's contest to determine how a 600 acre track of marshes, wetlands, and woodlands on the Cape Fear River should be used...instead of as a giant shipping port. The contest rules specified that the proposal "must create jobs and generate revenue as well as be environmentally friendly, fiscally responsible, and generally enhance the quality of life in our area."

I'm happy to announce that the winners have been chosen! From their press release:

"First place went to Frank A. Bausch of Caswell Beach, second place to Robert Mark Santi from Southport and third place was taken by Richard & Kimberly Bandera also from Southport. Cash prizes of $500, $300, $100 were awarded.

[...]

The winning entry focused on creating a state park with renewable energy as its theme. The park is divided up into seven individual sites showcasing or demonstrating renewable/alternative energy production and storage technologies. Called the “Southport Energy Park”, this use of the 600 acres excelled in meeting the criteria established: Job creation, an environmentally friendly alternative to the proposed port, generating revenue, being a positive addition to our unique region and co-existence with a nuclear power plant and an ammunition terminal."

Check out this article from the Brunswick Beacon, and this one from Star News Online for all the details. You can also watch a video about the project by clicking here.

Our congratulations to the winners for their innovative proposals, which will be sent to Governor Perdue.

Over the last 6 months we've asked you repeatedly to send emails and make phone calls to your members of Congress to support federal climate legislation. We owe you a big THANKS!. To explain, here's an update from last Friday evening from our partners at the 1Sky campaign:

The House of Representatives just passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) this evening by a vote of 219 to 212. This bill has narrowly passed this hurdle and we will redouble our efforts to strengthen it even more in the Senate. 

Check out this video from 1Sky's Campaign Director, Gillian Caldwell, for more explanation on the amazing campaign to get the bill passed and the road ahead (it's critical the bill gets stronger and that North Carolina's Senator Hagan, in particular, supports efforts to strengthen this historic bill).

Many thanks to the following NC members of Congress for supporting this historic legislation: Butterfield, Price, Etheridge, Shuler, Watt, and Miller (a letter to the editor is a great way to thank them! Contact Christopher[at]ncconservationnetwork.org for assistance).

Voting against this legislation that will create millions of green jobs over time and that will transition America to a clean energy future: all of the Republicans from NC including McHenry, Foxx, Myrick, Coble, and Jones. In addition, two Democrats voted no, McIntyre and Kissell. 

Representative Larry Kissell was the most surprising and disappointing no. When Mr. Kissell was elected he appeared to be a fresh face in Washington who would stand up for meaningful change. In fact, last year as Mr. Kissell was campaigning for Congress he said:

We can’t take any more government inaction, and must seriously invest in alternative, renewable, home-grown energy alternatives now.

Mr. Kissell may get a chance to redeem himself and keep the promises he made in his campaign. If the bill passes the Senate and needs a final House concurrence vote, we'll be watching to see what he does. 

Ah. Summer's here and the smells of veggie meat-like products are wafting through the air. Just this week, I tried a completely vegetarian Philly Fake-steak at The Remedy Diner here in Raleigh. But, vegetarians, let's be honest: not all pretend meat is created equal. And in lieu of July 4 and all of the grilling out everyone will be doing, I thought I best share an article from The Environmental Magazine regarding the sizing up of the pseudo-burgers and dogs of which I will be partaking. From the article:

"Veggie burgers and dogs have long been the go-to options for backyard grillers and kitchen cooks looking for a meatless alternative. And never have there been so many choices for what to put between two buns—or such close approximations to the "real thing.'"

They review the following products: Boca Vegan Meatless Burgers, The original Gardenburger, Amy’s All American Veggie Burger, Lightlife Smart Dogs Jumbo Veggie Protein Links, and Yves Meatless Jumbo Dog.

Personally, I'm a Gardenburger kind of gal. I don't actually need my veggie burger to look like legit meat. In fact, I almost prefer it not to. But I'd love to hear from other vegetarians out there--what will you be smothering in ketchup and mustard? And please, DON'T flip my veggie burger over with the meaty tongs. I'll just nuke it. Really.

Click here to take action!

With more hogs than people in the state, hog farming is a huge issue in NC. Even more so, our 10 million hogs generate about 13 million pounds of hog waste per day – posing a huge problem of how to properly dispose of this raw waste in a manner that doesn’t affect our water supplies, public health or quality of life.

There is a proposal for a new monitoring rule that would make sure that industrial animal facilities are properly handling their waste and complying with the law, just as any other industry is required to do. The enhanced monitoring at livestock operations will evaluate the effectiveness of the industry's waste management measures, enable accurate compliance oversight by the state, and ensure that the public and state agencies are able to identify water quality trends related to the performance of livestock operations. The information gained through this monitoring rule will aid in the protection of North Carolinians’ public health, water quality and quality of life.

Take action today and send an email to the NC Division of Water Quality - they need to know that you support this rule! For more information, please visit our Tell Me More page.

It's probably no surprise the world's largest public oil company is on our list of Pollution Superstars. We could have given them this 'award' for denying global warming.  Or for their support for offshore oil drilling.  And who can forget the Exxon Valdez oil spill?

Although any of these actions would be cause enough to give Exxon-Mobil our Pollution Superstar award, we're giving it to them for their dogged efforts to crush Congress' efforts to deal with climate change. Exxon-Mobil is a strong opponent of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), spending $9.3 million -- more than double what the entire environmental community has spent -- on lobbying efforts to weaken the bill.  We’re working with 1Sky to make sure a strong bill passes, despite the efforts of polluting giants like Exxon-Mobil.  Click here to take action and tell Congress that we need a strong climate bill now!

Many of you may already be familiar with a campaign the NC Conservation Network has been working on with our allies--the Stop Titan campaign. From our Action Alert page:

"The Titan Cement Company plans to construct a coal fired cement plant and limestone mine adjacent to the Northeast Cape Fear River in New Hanover County, NC. The plant would emit toxic mercury and the mining operation would destroy over 1,000 acres of NC wetlands."

There is also a website with lots more info about the campaign: www.stoptitan.org. Their site has a built-in map tool that allows you to input an address and find out how far it will be from the proposed plant, and outlines some of the possible effects people at that distance might experience from the creation of the proposed plant. For instance, when I input our office address, it said that we are "106.7 Miles NW of the stack. When the wind blows in the general NW direction, the stack gasses and pollution will blow directly at you." While you're calculating your distance from the proposed stack, notice how many schools are located less than 10 miles from the proposed location.

While sitting in a waiting room today, I read an article in Carolina Parent magazine entitled "Create backyard habitat." The author outlines some great ideas for getting kids involved in their own backyard--through creating creature habitat, feeding birds, and even "green" gardening (no pesticides!) These efforts are part of the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Habitat Program. From Carolina Parent:

"Founded in 1994 to plant the seeds of environmental awareness across the country, the [National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Habitat Program] gives families the opportunity to make exciting, natural discoveries in their own backyards by helping wild creatures find food, water, cover and places to raise their young."

Another one of their articles lists some cool science projects using non-toxic ingredients...you might remember these classics from your elementary school science fair:

• create your own slime;
• make a tornado in a bottle; and
• grow your own crystals.

While I know my inner child is both cheering for these fun ideas and doing some mental eye-rolling at my mother's old charge: "why don't you kids go play outside, it's such a nice day," I'm planning on trying a few of these ideas with the kids in my life in the upcoming weeks. I'll post again with some stories and photos of our efforts!

Take action now!

Under current law, coastal projects need to get approvals under the Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA). A subset of large, complex projects with the potential for substantial impacts trigger State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA), which requires more detailed environmental analysis before the CAMA process officially begins.

S778, if enacted, would exempt all CAMA projects from SEPA, eliminating vital opportunities for you and other concerned citizens to influence the very biggest development decisions made along our coast. Specifically, S778 would eliminate SEPA pre-review, which includes: explanation of the need for a project, analysis of alternatives, and written assessments of likely environmental impacts and potential mitigation. Without that information, it is much harder for concerned citizens to offer effective comments during the CAMA permit process.

Senate Bill 778 doesn’t get rid of an overlap – it undermines public comment in major decisions shaping the future of our coast. Take action today at http://ncconservationnetwork1.org/campaign/camasepa!

NPR has the coolest tool on their website. It's an interactive map of power sources, power lines, and power types (power plant, solar power, or wind power). It's a great way to visualize not only where you get your power from, but how the entire nation is connected, and the different ways other states get the majority of their power.

Try clicking the "power plants" tab at the top...you can mouse over the dots of power plants nation-wide to view more information about each plant. I must admit that while it is amazing to see how inter-connected our nation's energy grid is, it's also quite distressing that so little of our energy is coming from wind and solar efforts. I wonder what this grid will look like in 10, 30, 50 years...

I recently got a call from a good friend of mine, thrilled to tell me that she has taken it upon herself to become the recycling guru at her work (a large, corporate office in RTP). After years of seeing me sort through the garbage looking for plastic bottles, chipboard, empty cans, etc., she now has joined the green train and is influencing others at work to be more eco-conscious. Her call reminded me that there is a great online resource for folks looking to do the same thing at their workplaces. From our friends at Earth Share of North Carolina:

"Employees interested in being green now have a new resource to support their efforts – ESNC’s One Environment Network (OEN). This new web based program will aid environmentally-minded employees in creating green teams to promote sustainable practices in their workplaces and in their daily lives. Unlike programs that exist to support sustainable business practices at the management level, OEN is uniquely designed to support action at the employee level, by giving employees the structure and resources to inspire co-workers to adopt small changes that make a big difference."

To kick off the whole process, read their Getting Started Guide, which includes:

• How to start a green team;
• A sample agenda and information for a kick-off meeting;
• Ways to decide on a project(s);
• Info on registering your team and using the OEN website.

You can also post to the discussion board, direct coworkers to volunteer opportunities, and download step-by-step guides on current green team projects.

Before you know it, you'll be that ever-so-diligent person at work reminding folks to rinse and crush their cans prior to putting them into the recycling bin. :)

In a vain attempt to clean out my inbox, I came upon a report release that I wanted to share back in March. So here goes (better late than never, right?): From our friends at Land for Tomorrow regarding their recently released 2009 Green Book report:

"The report Good for the Economy, Good for Public Health is an annual compilation of county-by-county funding by the state's four land and water conservation trust funds, including Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation, Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage and Clean Water Management. With your help and support, last year the trust funds were able to provide $214.2 million for 330 projects in 89 counties. These funds are vital to help safeguard water quality and drinking water supplies, promote tourism, improve public health, provide buffers around military training areas, and protect farmlands and forest."

Now back to more inbox cleaning...

For more than 20 years, North Carolina has not allowed hardened structures on our 300 plus miles of coastline.  This has prevented landowners from building small jetties, or groins, to interrupt the natural flow of sand up and down the coast and keep the beach in front of their beachfront properties.

This long-standing ban will be lifted if a group of wealthy beachfront property owners and local officials called Save Our Sand gets their way.  According to the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western NC University, the hardened structures this group wants to allow on our beaches can:

• Reduce beach access
• Cause erosion of downdrift beaches
• Create potential hazard to swimmers 
• Reduce water quality by impeding circulation of water
• Impair aesthetics

So let me get this straight - these structures will make our beaches uglier, dirtier, more dangerous, and harder to get to?  Sounds like a great deal!  Click here to learn more and urge our legislature not to allow this to happen.

For their ongoing fight for their own property values over the public good, we crown Save Our Sand as a Pollution Superstar!

Who do you think should be a Pollution Superstar?  Let us know who and why in the comments.  And don't forget to make a donation today!

In 2005, environmental groups worked to pass House Bill 1465 which made it illegal to dispose of oyster shells in landfills. This bill also made it illegal to dispose of "rigid plastic containers" in landfills, starting October 1, 2009!

Rigid plastic containers are plastic bottles that have a neck smaller than the body of the container. For instance, coke bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, etc. 

Not only will this be great for the environment and save on precious landfill space, it will also help create a new economy in NC. From an article in the Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. to ban throwing away bottles:

Plastic-bottle recycling is big business both domestically and internationally, as corporations can cut their costs by reusing the containers instead of producing new ones from virgin materials, Mouw said.

The article continues:

A bit more locally, Clear Path Recycling in Fayetteville is building a $50 million plant that will rely heavily on the company's ability to amass recycled PET plastics from regional material-recovery facilities. After municipalities collect recycled waste from curbside pickup, materials are sent to MRFs where they are separated to be sold to corporations or recycling centers for profit.

Once Clear Path has acquired these plastics, they will be converted into polyester and sold primarily to national carpet manufacturing giant Shaw Floors, Mouw said.

The challenge of course - just as it continues to be for aluminum cans, tires, and white goods - is enforcing the law. What do you recommend as an incentive and/or penalty to make sure the law is enforced?

We were stunned and saddened last week by the loss of our friend and colleague Jim Stephenson, lobbyist and policy analyst for the NC Coastal Federation. We’ll miss his quiet and effective lobbying; we’ll also miss his ironic sense of humor, his passion for good public policy, and his fine taste in beer. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim’s wife and his colleagues at the NC Coastal Federation, which released this statement last week. Jack Betts, environmental editorial writer for the Charlotte Observer, posted a lovely tribute on his blog, describing him so aptly as ‘a good man in a tough business.’

Jim was a good friend, a very effective advocate and voice for NC’s coast, and a fine Board member. We will miss him.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it does. Here’s one more reason to fight for real clean energy solutions to climate change:

"Climate change is widening viral disease among farm animals, expanding the spread of some microbes that are also a known risk to humans, the world’s top agency for animal health said on Monday.

The World Animal Health Organization—known as OIE, an acronym of its name in French—said a survey of 126 of its member-states found 71 percent were “extremely concerned” about the expected impact of climate change on animal disease.

Fifty-eight percent said they had already identified at least one disease that was new to their territory or had returned to their territory, and that they associated with climate change.

The three most mentioned diseases were bluetongue, spread among sheep by biting midges; Rift Valley fever, a livestock disease that can also be picked up by people handling infected meat; and West Nile virus, which is transmitted by mosquito from infected birds to both animals and humans."

Sorry for the long lapse between posts...but we had our Annual Retreat last week, which was a great success! This week, we've been playing catch up at the office. The good news is that in the next few days we will be updating our website to a newer platform version...the bad news is that we'll be taking a few more days off from blogging while the site gets updated. But in the meantime, I leave you with this awesome article about zombie fire ants. From the N&O:

"The flies 'dive-bomb' the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombielike behavior."

I see a movie opportunity here...maybe Dead Ant Walking?

In addition to being the lone legislator among our Pollution Superstars, we have also crowned Senator David Hoyle the King of Government Giveaways. Just check out the bills he has introduced at the NC Legislature this year:

• S447, No Monetary Exaction for Development. This bill spells out that city and county governments cannot collect taxes, fees, or monetary contributions from development unless specifically authorized by state law.  Your city wants to protect its water from polluted runoff through developer fees? Sorry! If the state doesn’t give the okay, you are out of luck.
• S865, No State Regulation of Toxic Title V Sources. Blocks the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources from implementing state standards for Title V Hazardous Air Pollutants, weakening public health protections from air toxics.  This bill is a clear response to the resounding public groundswell for more toxic air pollution.
• S117, Clarifying Development Moratoria Authority. This bill prohibits local governments from adopting temporary moratoria on development for the purpose of developing and updating ordinances. No time to waste – that development/landfill/cement plant needs to go in today so don’t you dare take a little time to think through the potential long-term impacts on public health and the environment!

Blocking air pollution standards, crippling local governments, and stopping environmental rulemaking—pretty impressive! Congrats, Senator Hoyle for being selected as one of our Pollution Superstars.

Time is running out to nominate a Pollution Superstar!  Just leave a comment below with who you think should be a star and why. 

How can the folks building a project that the Charlotte Observer calls “an environmental time bomb” not show up in our collection? They can't! That’s why Titan Cement, who is trying to build a cement plant on the banks of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, has joined our list of Pollution Superstars.

On the surface, cement seems harmless... but then you learn a little more about it. To make cement, the company has to mine limestone, which just happens to be buried underneath wetlands. According to the Friends of the Lower Cape Fear and StopTitan.org, Titan plans to get their raw materials for cement by building a “1,200 acre mine, 70-feet deep that would destroy over 1,000 acres of irreplaceable wetlands, wildlife habitat and harm critical surface and ground water...”. That's almost two square miles of open pit mining in wetlands!

Then, to power the cement plant, Titan plans to use a mix of coal and coke, and maybe even tires. The plant, if built, would become the 5^th largest emitter of mercury in the state – right up there with our coal-fired power plants! And with 22 fish species in this area already under consumption advisories, we don’t need more mercury in the water. (Read more about fish and mercury in our recent blog).

Thankfully, there’s a bill in the legislature to slow down Titan and let the full environmental impacts of their plans be considered. Click here to learn more about the bill and take action to support it.

Who do you think should be a Pollution Superstar?  Let us know who and why in the comments.  And don't forget to make a donation today!

Well, folks, it's that time of year again! Triangle Transit has announced this year's SmartCommute Challenge, which runs through Mary 30. From their press release:

The 2009 SmartCommute Challenge, an annual nonprofit public service campaign aimed at reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality in the Triangle, is celebrating Earth Day with pledge events in Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh. The SmartCommute Challenge, coordinated by GoTriangle and SmartCommute@rtp, encourages commuters and college students who work or attend classes in Durham, Wake or Orange Counties to try a smarter, greener commuting alternative. Commuters can take the Challenge at www.SmartCommuteChallenge.org and pledge to ride the bus, carpool, vanpool, telework, bike or walk at least once during the six week campaign, which runs until May 30.

For info on how to take the challenge, visit http://www.smartcommutechallenge.org/.