This reporting project was made possible in part by a grant from the Fourth Estate Fund.
Martin Marietta’s proposal would expand their Castle Hayne limestone mining operation by 358 acres, about the size of 270 football fields. This plan would affect 143 acres of medium and high-quality wetlands and nearly ten acres of open water, mostly along Island Creek, a tributary of the Northeast Cape Fear River.
The hearing focused only on water quality, not potential noise issues, air pollution, or vibration from blasting. In addition to DEQ approval, the project also needs approval from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
In a previous email, DEQ staff stated, “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the federal permitting authority under Clean Water Act Section 404(b)(1) – is responsible for making a determination of the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative. DEQ’s Division of Water Resources then works to ensure this alternative avoids and minimizes impacts to water resources.” Both the USACE and DWR have, “requested more information about the alternatives.”
In order for the project to be certified by the DEQ, it would need to meet five criteria: “has no practical alternative,” minimizes “adverse impacts” to surface water and wetlands, does not degrade ground or surface waters, “does not result in cumulative impacts,” and “provides for replacement of existing uses through mitigation.”
Martin Marietta proposed seven alternatives but did not respond to DEQ’s request for more information on their preferred alternative before this hearing.
Sixteen citizens spoke against Martin Marietta’s proposal, calling it destructive to the local environment, lacking appropriate mitigation, dangerous for neighbors of the mine, and even potentially running afoul of the regulations.
Environmental concerns
Paige Turner, a conservation biologist and lifelong Cape Fear River basin resident, representing the Cape Fear Audubon Society, said, “The wild Cape Fear was once the heart of a subtropical rain forest fed by the tannin-rich water of North Carolina’s longleaf pine savannahs and cypress … swamps.”
She added residents now fear the pollution in the river, saying, “Flood waters now bring fecal matter and lagoon waste from high-density factory farms built directly in the flood plain, industrial discharge from manufacturing chemical factories, and street run off release PFAS into the water.”
Turner added that the impacted “wetlands are the reason we can still support shore birds nesting in the estuary, oyster farming, shark nurseries in our artificial reefs, and hundreds of sea turtle nests from Bald Head Island all the way up Wrightsville Beach…Loss of these wetlands…should not be permitted.”
Grenda Dennis asked that the Castle Hayne and Rocky Point quarries provide an environmental impact statement before moving forward.
Kelly McConnell, chair of the local Sierra club, said “Many birds, fish, and other wildlife depend on these wetlands and the streams. Many of them depend on this wildlife corridor that this [plan] puts at risk.”
Isabelle Shepherd, executive director of the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees, said, “The [Cape Fear] River is already carrying an enormous burden. It receives runoff and pollution from the most densely populated parts of our state, from textile manufacturing, industrial discharge, wastewater treatment plants, concentrated animal feeding operations, and countless other upstream sources.”
She added, “Our wetlands and the trees within are among the last natural filters standing between those pollutants and our communities.” Shepherd said, “Those wetlands aren’t vacant land waiting for another use. They are infrastructure that protects water quality, reduces flooding, and supports wildlife.”
Alleged regulatory concerns
Megan Teachy, a member of the Teachy, Willis, and DeBois families, “who have stewarded these lands and waters for generations,” cited The Carolina Charter of 1663 that granted the “rights and all titles to navigable waters” to the public. Teachey added, “Blasting, dredging, and injection of industrial chemicals into our aquifer is happening without legal authority… a direct offence against the common people and the public trust.”
Jessica Hardee of the Southern Environmental Law Center said, “This expansion would cause degradation in violation of the state quality standards. The Northeast Cape Fear River, and Island Creek…have designated existing uses that include aquatic life propagation, survival, and variants of biological integrity, wildlife, and recreation…[The] proposed expansion will cause runoff, erosion, and other disturbance that could degrade the waters to the point where the existing users cannot exist as such.”
Mitigation woes and unexplored alternatives
Martin Marietta’s proposal includes a plan to preserve two acres for every acre destroyed in the quarry expansion, but it’s not necessarily clear where that preserved land will be. (It’s also possible that the company could pay an ‘in-lieu fee’ to the state, which would then be responsible for preservation.)
Some critics have said that mitigation efforts should preserve nearby land with the same wetland function and ecological value.
In a previous email, DEQ staff stated, “There is no proposal for on-site restoration – DWR’s request for information asks for documentation from a private mitigation bank, or from the Division of Mitigation Services for the purchase of 143 wetland credits. Generally, mitigation does focus on function in addition to acreage, so the mitigated wetlands must be in the same watershed, same type and have the same quality as the impacted wetlands. If they are not, there is authority to require more acreage. DWR and other partner agencies have authority over the mitigation sites, and do require bonds, monitoring schedules and reports.”
Shepherd said, “Once these wetlands are evacuated, they cannot simply be rebuilt elsewhere. Their ecological functions developed over centuries cannot be replicated with mitigation…Our wetlands are worth more than the limestone beneath them and the health of our river and the people who depend on it is worth protecting.”
Andy Wood of the Coastal Plain Conservation Group said asked that the state ask Martin Marietta for mitigation on adjacent land also owned by the company.
Wood also asked for “an economic assessment” that shows “not just how much money this concrete is going to bring to the local economy, but how much money in taxes will be required to pay for the infrastructure expansion required for that new development.”
Wood added that Island creek is a “unique” and “imperiled” place that is “under duress” already.
Hardy explained, “Under the Clean Water Act, compensatory mitigation is a last resort,” and “state regulations favor mitigation that… are the same type and in the same watershed with the goal of replacing lost aquatic function.” Money doesn’t replace the wetlands and the services they provide.
Several speakers pointed out that Martin Marietta has other alternatives that are not located in protected wetlands. Many were confused as to why the alternatives weren’t being considered.
Dr. Natalie Coe, Preserve at Island Creek resident, wrote, “There are less destructive alternatives to this proposal’s location. The decision to push for an expansion here, near Island Creek, might make sense for ease of product delivery, but to destroy high quality, irreplaceable wetlands and place an already strained ecosystem and local community at risk is too high a price for corporate convenience.”
Dangers to neighbors
Turner said the decision will impact local aquatic species. She also voiced flooding concerns.
“Decades of industrialization and development of the Cape Fear River Basin limits the river’s ability to absorb the impacts of a quarry expansion in its direct flood plain,” Turner said.
Coe agreed, saying, “It would be irresponsible to not provide data to address how removal of this vast acreage of pristine wetland will impact future flooding, especially in light of the devastation of Hurricane Florence to our region, not to mention our quarry-adjacent neighborhood.”
Grenda Dennis, a Castle Hayne resident said, “The lowlands and the wetlands of the North East Cape Fear is part of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program. The Northeast Cape Fear River flood plain is nationally significant.” She quoted page 20 of the SEC filing of the company Titan America, which owns the land that Martin Marietta leases as the mine in Castle Hayne.
Titan, notably, fought with community members for nearly a decade over its plans to build a coal-fired cement plant in the same area as the mine. Titan executives cited changing economic conditions; opponents claimed their legal efforts and public advocacy had turned the tide.
In the filing, Titan America noted the risk of sinkholes and voids, which could expose groundwater. The report also notes that quarry blasting produces dust, vibrations, and noise which have sometimes led to nuisance and property damage complaints.
The filing continues, “Such blasting activities at our open quarries create risks of fugitive dust impacts affecting visibility and groundwater contamination from components of the explosives we use and from mechanical equipment we operate using oil, lubricants or fuels. Some of our quarries operate adjacent to public drinking water supplies… In addition, some quarries store and manage water…and synthetic liners for these ponds can cause releases, [and] flood property.”
McConnell said that this plan is at high risk for groundwater contamination.
Dr. Robert Parr asked that the Martin Marietta company first address remaining threats from the old Ideal Cement plant, formerly located near the site. The Ideal Cement plant buried “cement, chem dust, and coal ash contaminants including mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead, selenium, and thallium” and left a “legacy of pollution risk.”
These chemicals are toxic and could be released into the groundwater, he said.
“Heavy dewatering” could exacerbate this risk by pulling these “legacy heavy metals into the Castle Hayne and Peedee aquifers, permanently degrading New Hanover County’s groundwater.” He pointed out that the plan lacks “site-specific hydrological modeling” that could illuminate the environmental and water risks.
Responding to questions earlier this month, DEQ staff’s email stated, “DWR has not done hydrology modeling – typically the burden is placed on the applicant to prove that there aren’t sites that would have less of an impact on water resources.” DEQ said that groundwater impacts are typically addressed in the minor permit, which is handled by the department’s Division of Minerals, Energy, and Land Resources. DEQ said the water resources division could rely on the mining permit process to “highlight concerns with groundwater issues.”
Art Blasley, a resident of the Reserve at Island Creek, the neighborhood adjacent to the mine, is concerned about the blasting and flooding impacts to his neighborhood from the expansion. He said his house had three feet of water in it after Florence. Tim Holder worried about the loss of critical fish habitat and flood abatement, asking, with the loss of the wetlands, what might the next hurricane bring to that neighborhood?
DEQ is accepting written comments online, or through the mail by August 13, at 5 p.m. Online comments can be sent through this link with the project No 20260387, version 1, and the project name listed as “Castle Hayne.”
Written comments may also be submitted via mail to Stephanie Goss, 401 Permitting, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC, 27699-1617. All comments received on the permit will be considered as part of the decision on this application.
DEQ’s final decision will be made within sixty days of the end of the public comment period.
