20080868 Ver 2_N&O Scoopers, coveting the swamps_20090322

newsobserver.com
TH NEWdBSERVER
newsobserver.com
Page 1 of 2
Published: Mar 22, 2009 02:00 AM
Modified: Mar 22, 2009 05:18 AM
Scoopers, coveting the swamps
BY STEVE FORD, Associate Editor
Comment on this story
When The N&0's editor at the time, Claude Sitton, interviewed me on July 4, 1981, for a
newsroom editing job, there were three topics of discussion that still stick in my mind. One had
to do with my understanding of a newspaper's responsibilities. A second involved the paper's
coverage of a certain conservative U.S. senator, mild-mannered and tolerant fellow that he was.
And the third focused on a huge strip-mining operation down along the Pamlico River.
I had spent the previous couple of years working for an environmental agency closely focused
on water quality, so I was on Claude's wave length as he expounded on the ecological hazards
of digging through the Beaufort County forests and swamps hard by a sensitive, vitally
important waterway. The TexasGulf phosphate mine, as it then was known, had been up and
running since the mid-1960s, but was looking to expand so fresh ore could be recovered as old
areas were mined out.
The more things change ... well, you know how that goes.
There's still plenty of pay dirt to be scooped there near Aurora on the Pamlico's south bank. The
mine owners, now Saskatchewan-based PCS Phosphate, are trying to convince a passel of
federal authorities that the harm from ripping up another large chunk of landscape would not be
so severe as to warrant curbing the company's plans and thus putting jobs at risk.
The state, in a decision issued during Beverly Perdue's first week as governor, already has
signed off on the deal, which over the next 35 years would mean curtains for 3,900 acres of
wetlands and 4.8 miles of creeks and streams. (OK, there would be some reclamation, for what
that's worth.) Wetlands destruction requires federal approval, but if the project goes ahead, it
would set the record for a permitted loss of wetlands in North Carolina. Yee-haw!
Even the coalition of groups that's trying to have the state's approval overturned says it's
seeking only that PCS be required to abide by laws "protecting the environment, fisheries and
public health." That doesn't have to mean mining would come to a halt when the company's
current permit runs out in 2017. But the gargantuan bucket cranes that excavate the
phosphate-bearing ore would have to be deployed where they would do less wetlands damage.
Compromise, anyone?
Beaufort County is not exactly a cornucopia of good jobs, so there's understandable support for
its largest employer. But the Pamlico River itself, whose estuary the county encompasses, is
another huge economic asset, certainly worth protecting. Keeping the river healthy in fact pays
dividends for the state as a whole, given the link to Pamlico Sound and all the fishing and
tourism that the sound supports.
A reader who knows a thing or two about the phosphate mine recently shared some poignant
testimony. Winston Hooker Sr. of Cary (whom I met during his service on The N&0's
Community Panel) not only grew up in Aurora but worked as an engineer at the TexasGulf
operation as it was starting up. Among Hooker's recollections in a letter he sent our way:
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/v-print/story/I452288.html 3/25/2009
newsobserver.com
Page 2 of 2
"We had a summer cottage on Hickory Point at the confluence of the Pamlico River and South
Creek just 3 miles east of the Lee Creek Operations Plant of PCS Phosphate. I swam, fished,
hunted, sailed and caught crabs and shrimp there growing up in the 1940's and early 1950's. At
that time it was a most pristine ecological environment. My favorite crabbing and gill net fishing
location was exactly where the plant's waterfront is located. The proposed area of mining
expansion is the area between our cottage and the plant so I know the area as well as anyone.
"While the mining/chemical manufacturing operation there in an economically depressed
agricultural and fishing industry area did rescue a lot of families by buying up the land and
providing lots of blue collar jobs, it has raped the landscape, destroyed forestland and rich
agricultural soil farmland by stripping away the topsoil and by dumping the mine and mill
tailings into the Pamlico River and South Creek, it has destroyed the wetlands breeding grounds
of fish, shrimp, oysters and clams. They are gone now forever."
Hooker also spoke to the mine's lowering of the water table due to high-volume pumping,
risking salt-water contamination of wells. He mentioned dangers associated with the sulfuric
acid that is produced on-site. And he noted that much of the fertilizer derived from the
phosphate is shipped overseas.
Some bigtime Tar Heel politicians, including our two U.S. senators, are trying to goose federal
officials into making a prompt decision on the wetlands-trashing plan. They note all the jobs
associated with the mine.
True enough. But those jobs aren't in imminent jeopardy. And the feds, charged by law with
safeguarding precious ecological resources, surely don't need to have the squeeze put on them
by politicians dancing to tunes being called in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Editorial page editor Steve Ford can be reached at 919-829-45.12 or at
[e-mail].
Comics, crosswords and coupons... only in The N&O print edition. Subscribe Now!
© Copyright 2009, The News & Observer Publishing Company
A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/v-print/story/1452288.html 3/25/2009