Mine opponents pit fisheries against phosphates
Opponents of a proposed PCS Phosphate mine expansion near Aurora, N.C., are highlighting recent comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. PCS, a unit of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., has sought a permit to mine on 3,412 acres, which includes 2,408 acres of wetlands (GM Jan. 15, p. 10-11).
Those weighing in against the expansion include the Pamlico Tar River Foundation, the Southern Legal Environmental Law Center, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, William Schlesinger, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, and Joanne Burkholder, Director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology at N.C. State.
Opponents say the expansion would be the largest ever wetland destruction project in the state and would destroy a significant portion of six nearby creeks and almost all of their surrounding drainage areas, which are essential for commercial fisheries production of blue crab, penaid shrimp, Atlantic Croaker, and bay anchovy. As a result, they say, thousands of local jobs and $1 billion generated by the fisheries would be threatened. They also allege that PCS, while promising two acres of mitigation for each acre mined, is seeking to avoid recreating or restoring stream buffers as legally required.
Opponents also argue that PCS has alternatives to the expansion, such as mining its upland phosphate reserves or importing rock from Morocco. PCS already buys rock from Morocco for its Geismar, La., facility.
Opponents also cite the huge profits being posted by PCS, and termed the Canadian-based company as “foreign.” They worry that once the phosphate is gone, the region will be left with a lifeless river.
The public, spurred by fears of job losses at the existing PCS facility in Aurora, turned out at a December hearing to support the expansion. PCS has widely circulated positive reports of its past mitigation practices, though opponents charge that since the company began mining in Beaufort County in 1965, it has only reclaimed 14 percent of the land it has mined.
“We are in the process of reviewing comments from a variety of environmental agencies and the public to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ Draft Environmental Impact Statement,” a PotashCorp spokesman told Green Markets. “We will provide the Corps and the commenting parties with PotashCorp’s responses to those comments. This procedure is a normal part of the mine permit process, and we are committed to addressing the concerns of these stakeholders.”
PCS owns 35,000 acres near Aurora. PCS believes the facility to be the largest integrated phosphate mine and phosphate processing complex at one site in the world.
During 2006, the Aurora facility’s total production of phosphate rock was 4.58 million mt. The sequence for mining portions of the Aurora property has been identified in the permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1997. The permit expires in 2017, but the reserves in these areas could be exhausted before then. As a result, PCS is seeking the new permit from the Corps to mine additional areas. The company expects to have the necessary approvals for mine continuation by the end of 2007. It says the failure to secure the required approvals for continuation of the mining operations, on acceptable terms, would negatively affect reserves and costs.