© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Titan America Gets Air Permit after Four Years

The site of Titan America's proposed cement plant as viewed from the Cape Fear River. The area once housed the Ideal plant.
The site of Titan America's proposed cement plant as viewed from the Cape Fear River. The area once housed the Ideal plant.

Titan America received its state air permit Wednesday after a nearly four-year application process. 

WHQR’s Michelle Bliss reports that the regulatory approval brings Titan one step closer to opening its proposed cement plant in Castle Hayne.

The North Carolina Division of Air Quality issued Titan’s permit after holding public hearings on the draft document last fall and sifting through more than a thousand public comments.

The DAQ's decision was delayed when the federal Environmental Protection Agency approved stricter limits on air pollutants.

A court case also slowed the process. Titan ultimately turned down more than four million dollars in incentives, after a judge ruled that using public funds would require the company to undergo a full environmental impact study before receiving any permits.

Titan is now able to apply for a batch of other permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers.

If built, the Castle Hayne facility would be the only cement plant in the state.

Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? If so, we'd like to hear from you. Please email the WHQR News Team.

After growing up in Woodbridge, Virginia, Michelle attended Virginia Tech before moving to Wilmington to complete her Master in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Her reporting and nonfiction writing have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, within the pages of Wrightsville Beach Magazine, and in literary journals like River Teeth and Ninth Letter. Before moving to Wilmington, Michelle served as the general manager for WUVT, a community radio station in Blacksburg, Virginia. She lives with her husband Scott and their pups, Katie, Cooper, and Mosey.