20080868 Ver 2_News & Observer Article_20090123

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Editorial:
Published: Jan 23, 2009 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 23, 2009 01:40 AM
Dig it?
The Perdue administration should have taken a new look at plans
to expand a huge phosphate mine near the coast
Comment on this story
After his chilly oath-taking In Washington, President Barack Obama promptly put a freeze on
last-minute rule changes made by his predecessor, George W. Bush. The move wasn't
unprecedented -- Bush did the same in 2001 -- and it ensures scrutiny of pending regulations
by a new administration that may take a different view.
In Raleigh, newly inaugurated Gov. Beverly Perdue should have done something similar with a
controversial state environmental permit, but did not. Instead, just four working days after her
inauguration, water-quality regulators in the state Department of Environment and Natural
Resources issued a long-pending permit that will help the owners of an open-pit phosphate mine
near Pamlico Sound make their mine even bigger -- and gobble up even more wetlands.
The permit is a boon to Canadian-owned PCS Phosphate of Aurora, a setback to water quality
and natural habitat near the Beaufort County mine and an unwelcome instance of continuity
between the Easley and Perdue administrations. If Perdue's choice to head DENR, Dee Freeman,
had a chance to thoroughly examine the PCS permit before it was issued, he must be a quick
study.
Now, with the state permit in hand, PCS Phosphate is positioned to win approval from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to continue and expand its operations. Before going ahead, the Corps,
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration, should make
sure they strike the right balance under the Clean Water Act.
The company, which took over the Aurora operation in 1995 from TexasGulf, is Beaufort
County's biggest employer, no small matter in the hard-pressed areas just inland of our built-up
coast. PCS pays substantial taxes and contributes to community institutions, among them a
museum featuring fossils found in the mine. The phosphate ore deposits at the site are among
the richest in the country, and the mine's products -- fertilizer, phosphoric acid -- are useful.
And PCS touts its wetlands restoration efforts, even if they're required by law.
Weighed against all that must be the site's environmental value. The location is sensitive, near
the Pamlico River, which drains into seafood-rich Pamlico Sound. The permit battle has been
going on for years, with environmentalists opposed to mining close to the river.
PCS retreated last year from its preferred plan for expanded mining in the coming decades, and
state regulators subsequently trimmed that plan a bit. Still, The N&O's Wade Rawlins recently
reported that "The impacts to 4.8 miles of streams and more than 3,900 acres of wetlands
represent the largest destruction of wetlands ever permitted in North Carolina ...."
Then there's this: Just before issuing the permit the Division of Water Quality further
compromised, agreeing to let PCS mine a corridor through a highly valued swamp hardwood
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/v-print/story/l 378602.html 1/27/2009
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forest.
Perdue, in introducing Freeman as the new DENR secretary, said "He understands the
challenges of balancing economic issues with protecting North Carolina's very precious
environment."
Freeman and Perdue could have shown that with a fresh look at the threatened natural
environment surrounding what is already the largest integrated phosphate mining and chemical
plant in the world.
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http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/v-print/story/1378602,html 1/27/2009