The news that Titan America, the American subsidiary of the Athens, Greece headquartered multinational cement behemoth Titan Cement, S.A., planned to drop a massively scaled coal fired cement manufacturing operation along the scenic banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River came as a bit of a surprise. Most people only learned of it when the New Hanover County Commissioners tucked an item awarding Titan a $4.2 million incentive into a poorly publicized Monday morning Commissioners' meeting back in April 2008.

Good morning, Cape Fear River! Look who's moving in! Not just an oversized example of one of the filthiest industries known, but one which expects a subsidy.

Why is this not a good thing?

It was soon apparent at that April meeting of the County Commissioners that very few people had a good idea of just what is a modern cement plant. People seem to imagine a slightly larger version of the familiar readymix concrete plants scattered about eastern North Carolina. Readymix plants are loud and dusty, true, but hardly represent an ecological nightmare - why the big fuss over a cement plant?

The best way to imagine a modern cement plant is think of it in two parts. First, a cement plant needs a steady local supply of limestone. This is obtained by quarrying - on a massive scale. Imagine a large, open pit mining operation: giant dump trucks, dynamite, dewatering pumps, draglines. Now imagine that strip mine dropped down by the banks of the river.

The second part of the modern cement operation is the kiln. Limestone is turned into cement by heating it. In medieval times the cement makers of Rome threw looted marble statues and charcoal into their kilns to make cement. A modern cement plant is much larger, much hotter and much hungrier. More than a million tons of pulverized coal per year will need to be imported to the area and burned to heat the kilns. The kilns burn incedibly hot. For this reason they often do double duty (or "enhance the revenue stream") as toxic waste incinerators. Medical waste, industrial chemicals, old tires - whatever needs to be disposed of can be trucked in and burned - into the burner and out the smokestack.

Don't think of this proposed cement plant as just a larger, dustier, noisier version of the run-of-the-mill readymix plant. Think of it as it really is: an open pit strip mine located next to a behemoth toxic waste incinerator.

Welcome to the Cape Fear River Basin. Welcome to our nightmare.

Why the fuss?

Titan proposes to build their new cement plant and initial strip mine on the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River where it meets Island Creek. This is a particulary picturesque stretch of a beautiful river and creek.. In addition to being a popular fishing and boating destination, the surrounding wetlands provide irreplaceable nursery habitat to many fish and bird species. This section of the river has already been stressed to the breaking point by historical industrial activity and encroaching development and is only now recovering.

Beneath the proposed Titan site the Castle Hayne Aquifer provides clean drinking water for millions in Southeastern North Carolina - one of the fastest growing regions in the country - even in times of record breaking drought.

Some of North Carolina's finest beaches lie just a few miles downwind from the proposed site. These beaches draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each year for family vacations. Vacationers are drawn by the fresh air and clean water of our beaches, not by the prospect of frolicking in a toxic mercury plume from Titan's smokestacks.

This is NOT an asset to be sold for a handful of empty promises so a multinational mega conglomerate can pollute our skies and waters enroute to shipping sacks of cement off across the ocean. This is a very special piece of North Carolina and is worth protecting, preserving and passing on intact to the next generation.