Agencies, scientists, environmentalists, speak out against PCS mining plan

Washington, NC – A host of federal and state agencies have joined a dozen scientists and several environmental groups in formally telling the Army Corps of Engineers that PCS’s mining plan would have serious and lasting effects on the surrounding aquatic ecosystem.

Various state and federal agencies, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Services, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the NC Division of Marine Fisheries, and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council have submitted formal comments to the Corps of Engineers opposing PCS’s proposal to mine 2400 acres of wetlands, creeks and streams bordering the Pamlico River. The Corps of Engineers has permitting authority over the PCS proposal.

The agencies asserted concern that the proposal, if granted, could critically impact the fisheries and water quality of the Pamlico River system. For instance, the US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the project “may result in substantial and unacceptable adverse impact to aquatic resources of national importance,” while the NC Division of Marine Fisheries went on to say that the information in the Corps’ Draft Environmental Impact Statement was “woefully deficient” and that “significant revisions must be done to meet [federal environmental] requirements.”

In addition, a dozen prominent North Carolina ecologists, geologists, and other scientists, including 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 NC State, told the Corps that the proposal would “result in significant adverse impact to the aquatic ecosystem that cannot be replaced through mitigation in a reasonable time frame.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center, the Pamlico Tar River Foundation and several environmental and other groups have expressed concern over the proposal. The Corps will release a Final Environmental Impact Statement upon review of these comments.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) Phosphate, Inc. has applied to the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to destroy over 2400 acres of wetlands and over seven miles of tidal creeks and streams bordering the Pamlico River at the company’s phosphate mining site in Aurora.

The permit, if approved, would be the largest ever wetland destruction project in the state, and would destroy significant portions of six nearby creeks and almost all of their surrounding drainage areas. These areas are essential for commercial fisheries production, including blue crab, penaid shrimp, Atlantic Croaker, and bay anchovy. The Albemarle-Pamlico Sound is one of the most productive North American fisheries, generating thousands of jobs and over $1 billion dollars annually.

PCS claims to have plans to reclaim the mined land and mitigate any adverse impacts, However, at the proposed site, the proposed destruction is so great, PCS has asked the state to allow the company to avoid having to recreate or restore stream buffers, as they are legally required to do, and instead use alternative and less stringent methods of mitigation. In fact, the “conceptual” mitigation plan outlined by PCS in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement falls short of the level of mitigation recommended by EPA standards.