The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region Four director, based in Atlanta, has sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Wilmington, N.C., saying that it should put a hold on any expansion permit for the PCS Phosphates phosphate rock mine in Aurora, N.C. This came after the Corps notified the EPA office of its plans to proceed on the permit.
The Atlanta office said it is requesting a review of the permit by EPA’s Office of Water and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. During this review, the permit should be held in abeyance pending completion of the review process, according to the letter from Acting Regional Administrator A. Stanley Meiburg.
“EPA remains concerned that the proposed project will result in unacceptable adverse impacts to aquatic resources of national importance, including direct and indirect impacts to waters of the U.S. which support the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program area,” said Meiburg. He said EPA believes there are less environmentally damaging practicable alternatives for mining the project site that would avoid and minimize impacts to important wetland and stream resources. He said there are also concerns regarding the adequacy of the proposed compensatory mitigation to offset any authorized impacts.
Meiburg said he recognized the need for a timely decision; however, he said critical issues remain unresolved, and his office does not support issuance of a permit for the project as currently proposed.
PotashCorp, the parent of PCS Phosphates, said last week that it remains hopeful that the permit will be issued by the end of the second quarter. Back in January, the company had been hoping for a final Corps decision by the end of April (GM Jan. 29, 2009).
PCS has been seeking the permit since 2000, and the permit from the Corps was seen as the last major hurdle. State and local officials had petitioned the regional EPA office to support the expansion. Proponents argue that PCS has a good reclamation record and is the largest employer in Beaufort County, with some 1,100 employees.
The N.C. Division of Water Quality issued a permit in January to allow the company to mine about 11,000 acres adjacent to its current mine. Several environmental groups had just announced earlier this month that they would appeal that decision to an state administrative court. That appeal was made by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Environmental Defense Fund, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, and the North Carolina Sierra Club. The groups say the expansion impacts 4.8 miles of streams and more than 3,900 acres of wetlands, and represents the largest destruction of wetlands ever permitted in the state.
An editorial in the local newspaper, The News & Observer, suggested that no one should be rushed into a decision, even if many jobs are at risk. “But those jobs aren’t in imminent jeopardy,” it said. “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, Sask.”
PCS said in 2008 that the area currently being mined has about four more years of use (GM Archives).