A construction materials company’s proposal to expand its limestone quarry in northern New Hanover County threatens more than 140 acres of mostly high-quality wetlands and vital fish habitat, environmental groups say.

Martin Marietta’s preferred plan to enlarge its Castle Hayne quarry would permanently destroy 143.46 acres of pristine wetlands and 9.7 acres of open water that connect to those classified as primary nursery area, strategic habitat area, and essential fish habitat, the groups argue.

The proposed expansion of the 1,700-acre quarry that sits between the Northeast Cape Fear River and Holly Shelter Road could also decrease natural flood defenses, environmentalists say.

Advocates are pushing regulators to deny the company’s first-choice plan, arguing that other options Martin Marietta has identified to source limestone to meet the demand of future construction needs carry fewer ecological consequences.

They’ll get their chance to voice their concerns on water quality impacts from the proposed 358-acre expansion in northern New Hanover County during a public hearing hosted by the North Carolina Division of Water Resources on July 14. That hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Heide Trask Senior High School auditorium, 14328 N.C. 210 in Rocky Point. Speaker registration will open at 5:30 p.m.

More than half a dozen environmental groups have asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny Martin Marietta’s Clean Water Action Act Section 404 permit application. A federal 404 permit regulates discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands.

In a May 22 letter to the Corps, those groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center, Cape Fear River Watch, Carolina Wetlands Association, Coastal Plain Conservation Group, North Carolina Sierra Club, North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and Save Sledge Forest, said Martin Marietta’s permit application does not include a thorough analysis of the project’s impacts to environmental resources, including wetlands.

Those groups also argue that the company’s other project alternatives, including expanding mining operations at the company’s Rocky Point quarry, would be “less damaging” to wetlands and waterways.

“Where Martin Marietta is proposing to expand its Castle Hayne quarry, it’s just closer to so many sensitive and high-quality waters,” said Julie Youngman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The Rocky Point quarry is not very far away. It could provide the same value to the local community and provide the same source of building supplies, but still cause far less environmental damage. I think that’s what all of us are focused on ‘why aren’t you thinking about that location.’”

Martin Marietta’s application details six potential project alternatives, alongside a no-action alternative.

The possible expansion of the company’s Rocky Point quarry, which sits about 3½ miles away from its Castle Hayne site, would destroy a little more than 152 acres of wetlands and 13.28 acres of freshwater ponds, according to environmental groups.

“At first glance, this alternative would result in the net loss of more wetlands than Martin Marietta’s preferred alternative,” the May 22 letter states. “However, the quality and function of the wetlands at the Rocky Point or any other major waterway. Unlike at the Castle Hayne Quarry, an expansion of the Rocky Point site would not pose the same concerns about runoff and water quality. Likewise, this off-site alternative is not located near important fish habitat or a nationally significant floodplain.”

The letter urges that any expansion of the Rocky Point quarry be conditioned on Martin Marietta maintaining a 100-foot minimum internal buffer zone to protect adjacent wetlands from the direct effects of mining activity.

“The Cape Fear River in New Hanover County is already suffering from enough sources of degradation that if an additional one could be avoided, the state and federal agencies should think hard about doing so,” Youngman said. “The Castle Hayne community is also shouldering more of an environmental burden than maybe is fair between a proposed development and various industrial operations around them. They don’t need more mining to cause more water quality and noise and traffic hardship for them.”

Later this month, lawyers for several Castle Hayne residents are expected to go before the New Hanover County Board of Adjustment to appeal Hilton Bluffs, a proposed 1,800-home development covering 600 acres of a 4,000-acre tract that includes Sledge Forest. The forest includes ancient trees, vast wetlands, and riverine habitat.

If Martin Mariett’s preferred alternative to expand its Castle Hayne quarry is approved, the groups are urging regulators to require the company to produce an environmental impact study.

DWR is accepting written comments on the proposed expansion through 5 p.m. Aug. 13 using an online form for project No 20260387, version 1 with the project name listed as “Castle Hayne.” Mailed written comments may be submitted to Stephanie Goss, 401 Permitting, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617.

A coastal land conservation group has reached an agreement with a developer to permanently protect a sprawling tract of land in New Hanover County featuring ancient forests, vast wetlands, and riverine habitat.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced Thursday a tentative purchase and sale agreement with Charlotte-based Copper Builders to preserve more than 3,200 acres of Sledge Forest.

“This is one of the most significant conservation opportunities in New Hanover County in a generation,” Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said in the press release. “More than 3,200 acres, a landscape larger than Carolina Beach State Park, will be permanently protected in the heart of one of the fastest-growing counties on the North Carolina coast. That is what this agreement means.”

The fate of the deal hinges on the construction of Hilton Bluffs, a controversial 1,800-home development covering 600 acres of the privately owned 4,000-acre tract. The project, conditionally approved by the New Hanover County Technical Review Committee in March, continues to face heavy backlash among locals and thousands of activists backing the Save Sledge Forest movement.

“We appreciate what Coastal Land Trust is trying to do here, but we believe that this approach just doesn’t go far enough,” Castle Hayne resident and Save Sledge Forest cofounder Kayne Darrell explained Thursday during a telephone interview. “This community is steadfast in our belief that no development at all is best for our community and Sledge Forest. This agreement does not in any way change Copper Builder’s proposed Hilton Bluffs development of 1,800 homes on 500-plus acres. That remains exactly the same. And while conservation of these unbuildable wetlands in Sledge Forest is important, it does nothing to reduce the impacts of that development in this small, rural community.”

In the announcement last week, the Coastal Land Trust stated it “is not taking a position” on whether Hilton Bluffs should be approved.

“Its commitment is straightforward: if the project proceeds as currently approved, the Coastal Land Trust will ensure that more than 3,200 acres are permanently protected, publicly accessible, and managed to the highest conservation standards,” the organization stated.

Sledge Forest is home to ancient trees, including 500-year-old bald cypress, longleaf and loblolly pines more than 300 years old and some of the Southeast’s largest remaining Atlantic white cedar.

The forest is designated a North Carolina Natural Heritage Program Nationally Significant Natural Area, sheltering 13 imperiled plant species and several at-risk animal species. Last year, the forest was added to the Old-Growth Forest Network’s national list of threatened forests.

Sledge Forest is also part of the Northeast Cape Fear River floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

“What we would be conserving is really the heart of the property,” Marks explained Thursday in a telephone interview. “It is the most ecologically important area of this entire tract.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Copper Builders will donate 1,200 acres to the Coastal Land Trust at no cost. The nonprofit will purchase 2,000 acres through a bargain sale.

“The bargain sale certainly helps matters,” Marks said, adding that the organization will apply for grants and that “some kind of fundraising is likely.”

Thousands of people have viewed and shared on social media a video clip and story of waterside tours of the forest.

Darrell highlighted the “extraordinary response” the videos had generated from people across the country. Within days of the videos posting, another 1,000 people had signed Save Sledge Forest’s petition, she said.

As of Friday afternoon, the petition had more than 15,500 signatures and counting.

At its meeting next month, New Hanover County Board of Adjustment is expected to hear appeals from adjacent Castle Hayne property owners regarding the proposed subdivision.

They argue that Hilton Bluffs would add thousands of additional vehicles on rural roads that cannot accommodate them, strip the landscape of hundreds of acres of trees and increase the threat of flooding, disrupt the surrounding ecosystem, and potentially compromise a state-designated inactive hazardous site on adjacent property.

“We intend to remain focused on the legal appeal of our county’s erroneous conditional approval of the Hilton Bluffs project,” Darrell said. “We’re going to continue to move forward with this appeal process and we’re going to do so with confidence and determination. We’re prepared to challenge this development as long as it takes.”

The draft 2026 Cape Fear River Basin plan, one that highlights areas that need additional protection, restoration or preservation within the state’s largest and most populous river basin, is out for public comment.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources is accepting comments through Aug. 4 on the draft plan, which focuses on water quality data collected between 2000 and 2020.

The plan includes an overview of water use and availability in the basin, a brief discussion of changes in water quality over a 20-year period, existing management strategies and approaches for addressing point and nonpoint sources of pollution, and addresses ongoing studies and actions to manage and reduce pollution from emerging compounds, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and 1,4-dioxane.

Waters in the basin, including the Haw and Cape Fear rivers, have been found to be contaminated with these compounds.

PFAS, which are used in the manufacturing in a host of consumer goods including waterproof clothing and disposable food containers, do not break down in the environment and can build up in humans and animals. There are more than 15,000 of these substances today, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. While their effects on human health continue to be studied, PFAS exposure has been linked to adverse health effects including thyroid disease, high cholesterol, and increased risks of certain cancers, including kidney and testicular.

The EPA classifies 1,4-dioxane, a synthetic industrial chemical, as a likely human carcinogen.

The basin covers more than 9,300 square miles and includes portions of the urban population centers in the Triad as well as the Triangle, and the cities of Fayetteville and Wilmington. Major rivers in the basin include the Haw, Deep, Cape Fear, Black, South and Northeast Cape Fear.

The basin has experienced increased growth, poultry production and stormwater and wastewater discharges, all of which have boosted nitrogen and phosphorus levels that simulate plant and algal growth.

Written comments may be submitted by email to DEQ.DWR.BasinPlanning@deq.nc.gov or by mail to NCDEQ Division of Water Resources ATTN: Nora Deamer, Basin Planner 1611 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1611.

Based on the 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture, agriculture in the basin has seen an overall decrease in cattle and swine numbers but a substantial increase in poultry production. 

Information on the division’s basin plans are available at Basin Planning Branch | NC DEQ. 

New Hanover County commissioners have approved the purchase of more than 28 acres along the Cape Fear River’s western bank across from downtown Wilmington.

Commissioners on Monday afternoon unanimously agreed to the $2.24 million land deal, one that includes two undeveloped tracts that will remain preserved once under county ownership.

The purchase signals the county’s commitment to protect land along the western bank, which has in the past several years been eyed by developers who have come to the county with proposals to build a hotel and spa and a luxury high-rise condominium complex.

All that remains before the purchase is finalized are the results of soil and groundwater samples taken on one of the properties where an oil storage facility was operated for roughly a decade until the mid- to late 1990s.

Soil found to have been contaminated by fuel leaks in an area of the 17.13-acre tract west of U.S. 421 was excavated more than a decade ago and stacked on the property, where it is being remediated onsite in bioreactors. A 2007 environmental study of the site concluded that contamination was not flowing into the river.

The county expects to receive the results of the latest soil and groundwater samples no later than next week. County staff have indicated they do not expect the results to give them cause for concern.

“We have heard the public tell us repeatedly how important preservation is in our community,” Commission Vice-Chair Dane Scalise said Monday. “This is another example of us doing it.”

He pointed out that County Manager Chris Coudriet recently emailed commissioners saying that, if they moved forward with the purchase, the county will have acquired more than 100 acres for preservation within the past seven months.

“We have heard the community over and over again tell us that they want preservation and particularly in that area and we are committed to doing that,” Commission Chair LeAnn Pierce said. “That is something that we’ve pivoted on and we have decided that that is what we want to do is preserve open space and green space and mitigate some of the building that’s going on in New Hanover County. And this is the only way we can do it is by buying that property when it becomes available to us.”

The latest purchase also includes an 11.42-acre riverfront tract just north of Point Peter, an undeveloped area that was a few years ago the subject of a highly controversial proposed development.

Look back: New Hanover Board denies new zoning district

Point Peter is a plot at the confluence of the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers along an area already feeling the effects of sea level rise.

Environmental, historical and cultural preservation groups, and community members banded together in opposing a request by developers to rezone roughly 8 acres so that they could move forward with plans to build a complex of three high-rise condominiums overlooking the river and adjacent downtown Wilmington.

Commissioners ultimately denied the rezoning request in late 2021 and pursued revising an amendment to the county’s 2016 comprehensive land use plan to create a new conservation “placetype” specifically for the western bank at the confluence of the rivers. “Placetype” is a planning term used to describe the mix of compatible uses within an area.

The riverfront tract at 1450 Point Harbor Road that the county intends to buy includes a little more than six acres within the Cape Fear River waterline.

The plot was once used as a railroad terminal yard. The land has not been identified as having known environmental conditions by any regulatory agency, according to county staff.

The tract across the highway at 1209 N. U.S. 421, is adjacent to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office’s target shooting range. This property would prevent encroachment to the shooting range and provide river access for the sheriff office’s marine unit.

Funding to buy the tracts will be pulled from reserves from the county’s revenue stabilization fund, which will be replenished through annual reimbursements of $266,130 from the county’s general fund for the next 10 years.

The purchase is expected to be complete by Dec. 31.

A New Hanover County forest that includes centuries-old trees has been added to a national list of threatened forests.

Sledge Forest, where bald cypress trees up to 500 years old tower over the forest floor, longleaf and loblolly pines are more than 300 years old and some of the Southeast’s largest remaining Atlantic White Cedar stand, has been added to the Old-Growth Forest Network’s national list of threatened forests.

The forest, one advocates point out is the last of its kind in the region, has been making headlines in recent months because it is situated within a parcel currently eyed for development.

The designation, announced Wednesday by the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees, or ACFT, and Save Sledge Forest, highlights “the urgency of preserving this irreplaceable ecological treasure,” according to a release.

“Once an old-growth forest is cleared, it cannot be replaced in our lifetimes or our children’s,” ACFT Executive Director Isabelle Shepherd stated in the release. “Sledge Forest is not just trees – it’s infrastructure. It absorbs millions of gallons of stormwater annually, reduces flooding, stabilizes soil, cools our county, and stores centuries of carbon. To degenerate and destroy it in such a way would be environmental malpractice.”

Sledge Forest rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County. It is part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Last year, a Charlotte-based development company submitted proposed plans to build thousands of single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm on about 1,000 acres of the 4,000-acre site that includes the forest. Much of the remaining 3,000 or so acres includes protected wetlands.

The forest is designated a North Carolina Natural Heritage Program Nationally Significant Natural Area, sheltering 13 imperiled plant species and seven at-risk animal species, according to the release.

The Old-Growth Forest Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving ancient forests in the nation, where, on average, fewer than 5% of original forests remain standing in the West and 1% remain in the East.

Organizations based here fighting to save the forest hope to get it designated as an area of conservation so it becomes a place for research, education and low-impact recreation.

“Let’s not make the mistake of seeing this land only as acreage to be subdivided,” Save Sledge Forest Cofounder Kayne Darrell said in the release. “It’s time for our leaders to recognize that some places are simply too valuable to destroy for development.”

Armed now with a petition of 10,000 signatures, a group fighting a proposed development in a forest that holds the last large expanse of old-growth trees in New Hanover County plans to host a rally June 21.

The Save Sledge Forest rally will include live music and food trucks. The rally is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. at Innes Park, 102 N. 3rd St., Wilmington.

An after-party will be held at Waterline Brewing Co., 721 Surry St.

Sledge Forest rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County. It is part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Some of the forest’s inhabitants include cypress and loblolly pine trees hundreds of years old and considered a “rare old-growth occurrence,” according to a biological survey published in May 2003 by the Natural Heritage Program of North Carolina, which identified the forest as a significant natural area.

Last year, a Charlotte-based development company submitted proposed plans to build thousands of single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm on about 1,000 acres of the 4,000-acre site. Much of the remaining 3,000 or so acres includes protected wetlands.

In case of inclement weather June 21, a rain date has been scheduled the following day from 1:30-3 p.m.

State officials are monitoring water quality in an area of Duplin County where tens of thousands of gallons of hog waste spilled into an unnamed tributary and a named creek that flow into the Northeast Cape Fear River.

An estimated 84,000 gallons spilled from Murphy Brown LLC Farm off Kenan Loop Road in Wallace after equipment pumping waste between lagoons malfunctioned, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

State Division of Water Resources staff were alerted last weekend of the spill, which began early Saturday and continued through early Sunday with hog waste reaching the unnamed tributary of Doctors Creek.

“The permittee removed waste from the unnamed tributary and returned it to a secondary lagoon on the farm site,” according to a DEQ release.

Division staff have confirmed the cleanup and collected samples at the discharge point, upstream and downstream to check water quality impacts.

There are no known public water intakes along the path of the spill, according to DEQ.

Water quality in the area will continue to be monitored by division officials. Any actions taken as a result of the spill are to be posted about online, officials said.

Not much has changed in Sledge Forest in the more than 20 years since its distinctive features were captured on the pages of a document created to offer guidance for its future use.

That, said geologist Roger Shew, is the beauty of it.

The forest that rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County is still an important part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Towering up from the forest bed are cypress and loblolly pine trees, some of the oldest in southeastern North Carolina, that are hundreds of years old, a “rare old-growth occurrence,” according to a biological survey published in May 2003 by the Natural Heritage Program of North Carolina, which identified the forest as a significant natural area.

The forest’s attributes have in recent weeks been thrust front and center in a rumble that tipped off when a Charlotte-based developer submitted to the county’s planning department preliminary plans to build thousands of homes on about a quarter of the more than 4,000-acre, privately owned site.

Because the land being eyed for the proposed development of more than 4,000 single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm does not have to be rezoned, the project gets pushed straight through to the county’s technical review process, effectively omitting the opportunity for public comment.

That’s simply unacceptable to Castle Hayne resident and local activist Kayne Darrell.

“It’s a by-right property so they can go in and start clear-cutting any time they want,” Darrell told Coastal Review in a recent telephone interview. “We’re hoping they don’t yet. It’s unconscionable to me that we have no opportunity to get our questions answered or have any input on what’s happening because it’s going to impact so many of us in so many negative ways.”

Attempts to reach the developer, Copper Builders, LLC, were unsuccessful. An engineer listed on the development plan application did not return a call for comment.

The homes of Hilton Bluffs, the name of the proposed development, would be built on about 1,000 acres of uplands that adjoin about 3,000 acres of protected wetlands, those that have a continuous surface connection to the U.S. Supreme Court-defined “waters of the United States” – in this case, Prince George Creek, which connects to the Northeast Cape Fear River.

Sledge Forest is one of the largest tracts along a more than 35-mile stretch of the floodplain corridor running from Holly Shelter Creek, at the north, south to Smith Creek.

Shew, senior lecturer in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Ocean Sciences and Environmental Sciences department and a conservationist, said in an email response to Coastal Review that the forest is dominated by hydric soils that are “periodically inundated during high-tide flooding events and storm events.”

Such floods are forecast to only increase with sea level rise, the latest projections of which are a minimum of one foot by 2050.

“High-tide flooding is common along the river and has the potential to inundate much of the site,” Shew said. “And, in the future … most of the area will be inundated fully or partially with river waters. Putting golf courses, horse barns and cabins or single-family homes in this area are ill-advised.”

The roads that will connect those neighborhood amenities will have to be built over wetlands, which will, in turn, block water movement, Shew said.

“And of course, whatever (fertilizer, herbicides, etc.) is put on these areas will runoff into the surrounding wetlands and river,” he wrote.

“The best and most logical use of this land is for it to be left as a natural area that supports wildlife, rich plant communities, corridor connectivity, reduces floodwaters, and maintains all of the ecosystem services of these wetland communities for the benefit of our community in a way too fast-growing area in northern (New Hanover County),” he said. “We need to have a comprehensive plan that maintains large natural areas and this and parts of Island Creek are sights that would be best and be opportune investments for the county for its future.”

Most of the old-growth trees are largely within the project building footprint, Darrell said. A 2003 natural area inventory dated cypress to be more than 350 years old and estimated to be as much as 500 years old, and dated loblollies to be more than 300 years old.

Area residents are also concerned about what is projected to be a significant increase in traffic on rural roads in the area – more than 30,000 additional vehicles per day.

Inactive hazardous site abuts tract

Opponents of the proposed development say they’re also troubled by the fact that the development is being proposed on land that is adjacent to a state-designated inactive hazardous site.

According to information provided by the North Carolina Division of Waste Management, contamination at the site off Castle Hayne Road resulted from drums of calcium fluoride and lubricants being stored in unlined trenches during the 1960s and 1970s.

That contamination spreads across two parcels, one of which is owned by General Electric.

Contamination in groundwater in the northwest corner of GE’s roughly 100-acre tract includes uranium, vinyl chloride and fluoride.

Those contaminants spill over onto a neighboring 1,500-plus-acre parcel owned by Nuclear Fuel Holding Co. Inc., a GE affiliate, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

There are also contaminants in groundwater around the main plant on GE’s property. Those contaminants include tetrachlorethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), cis- 1,2-dichloroethene, 1,1-dichloroethane, vinyl chloride, benzene, and naphthalene contaminate, according to the state.

Contamination at the main plant area is contained on-site, but is also close to the northern central property line, said Katherine Lucas, public information officer for the Division of Waste Management, in an email responding to Coastal Review’s questions.

“A portion of the (northwest) Area Contamination has migrated to the adjacent property in the deep groundwater aquifer,” she said in the email.

The site was added to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Inactive Hazardous Sites Branch inventory in 1988.

The department’s Division of Water Resources conducted regulatory oversight of all remedial activities at the site until 2008, when site management was transferred to the branch as part of a reorganization between the waste management and water resources divisions.

The site was added to the branch’s Site Priority list in 2008.

“The area of the contamination has not been calculated,” Lucas said. “Ground water contamination is being remediated with a series of hydraulic control wells and pump and treatment of contaminated groundwater.”

More than 3,500 people have signed an online petition to save Sledge Forest.

Darrell, who helped organize Save Sledge Forest, said the ultimate goal is to get the land in conservation.

“That’s where it belongs,” she said. “We’re not giving up. It’s too special a place.”

A manufacturing plant in Duplin County would have to monitor, but not limit, chemical compounds it discharges from its wastewater treatment system into the Northeast Cape Fear River under the terms of a draft permit being reviewed by state and federal agencies.

Automotive textile and technology manufacturer Lear Corp.’s draft National Pollutant Discharge Eliminations System, or NPDES, permit renewal includes a special condition that the company monitor for per- and polyfluoroalkyl, or PFAS, emitted from its treated industrial wastewater into the river quarterly.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources also would require the company to monitor its outtake of 1,4-dioxane, which is primarily used in as a solvent in manufacturing.

The state’s proposal to let the company monitor, and not curb, man-made chemicals the plant discharges is a slap in the face of residents already living in and downstream of an area where water quality is affected by a heavy concentration of large hog and poultry operations, opponents say.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the water resources division’s water quality permitting section chief on March 5, one month after the draft permit was received by the agency, notifying the state it was invoking a 60-day extension to review the permit.

“The EPA will complete the review of this permit as expeditiously as possible prior to the end of the 90-day period on May 6, 2024,” the letter from EPA Region 4’s Water Quality Branch Acting Manager Christopher Thomas states.

DEQ had received by early March more than 400 emails calling for the state to require Lears cap the amount of PFAS it releases into the river, Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said.

The state agency has since pushed back its public comment period deadline on the draft permit to March 28.

Lear declined to answer specific questions about its draft permit application, instead offering an emailed statement, saying in part that the company is working with DEQ on a permit renewal “that adheres strictly to state regulatory guidelines and standards governing the use and disposal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).”

“We conduct rigorous monitoring of our wastewater discharge to ensure compliance with the NCDEQ regulatory requirements and have reformulated the majority of our products to eliminate the use of PFAS,” the statement continues. “We are working to transition our remaining products to a PFAS-free solution as soon as reasonably practical. We are committed to continuing to work with NCDEQ and to take appropriate environmental stewardship actions. Our highest priorities are the health and safety of people, local communities, and the environment.”

The state issued Lear’s current permit in 2018, about a year after news broke that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people, had been the dumping site of a host of PFAS emitted from the Chemours Co.’s Fayetteville Works facility for decades.

Under a 2019 consent order, the company had to add to its Bladen County plant various controllers, including a thermal oxidizer to trap PFAS from being released into the air and an underground retainer wall to prevent PFAS-contaminated groundwater from getting into the river.

There are well over 10,000 different PFAS being used in the manufacturing of a wide-range of consumer goods. PFAS are used in the making of everything from stain-resistant carpets and waterproof gear to nonstick cookware and disposable food containers.

Potential health effects from exposure to PFAS include changes in cholesterol, low birth weight in newborns, changes in human immune response, increased risk of high blood pressure in pregnant women and increased risk of certain cancers such as kidney and testicular cancer.

The technology Chemours is using to reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges to near non-detectable levels prove that other manufacturers can and should do the same, Sargent said.

“The DEQ is required to enforce these on these other industrial polluters and they’re not,” she said. “This is a federal law. This is the Clean Water Act. DEQ has the full authority to regulate this facility and limit their PFAS dischargers. It’s pretty clear from where we sit it’s obviously ridiculous that DEQ would be allowing any known PFAS dischargers to continue to discharge after all we’ve learned over the last seven years. They should be sticking to their mission, protecting human health and the environment.”

Under the draft permit, Lear would be required to implement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines on PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which the agency has classified as a likely human carcinogen.

The EPA’s final rule in a proposal to set limits on six PFAS is expected to be released any day now. The proposed rule limits the maximum allowable amount of a combination of four chemical compounds, including GenX, a PFAS specific to Chemours’ plant in Bladen County.

EPA also proposes to set maximum contaminant levels on what have been two of the most used PFAS compounds – perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS – at 4 parts per trillion.

Public comments may be emailed with the subject line “Lear Corp.” to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov.

Once the public comment period ends, Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers will decide whether to hold a public hearing. A hearing would be held following a 30-day public notice.

The 2,300-acre Owens’ easement is the latest parcel along the Northeast Cape Fear River that has been preserved by the N.C. Coastal Land Trust. Source: N.C. Coastal Land Trust

WILMINGTON – Two families have preserved more than 2,300 acres of forestland along the Northeast Cape Fear River in northern Pender County, the N.C. Coastal Land Trust announced yesterday.

The property had been a high priority for the land trust since 2002, noted Camilla Herlevich, its founder and executive director.  “Everyone understands that saving land along rivers, lakes and streams means cleaner water for all,” she said. “These particular lands are truly special.”

It was a nice Christmas gift then when the land trust completed purchase of the conservation easement on Dec. 23.

Stretching for five miles on the east side of the river just south of the Duplin County line, the property is marked by numerous high bluffs. Wedged between the river and the state’s Angola Bay Gamelands, the land’s forests have an incredible variety of trees, from longleaf pine and mixed loblolly pines. The pine forests give way to bottomland hardwood wetlands and small ponds as the topography changes.

“Even the appraiser called to tell us it was one of the most beautiful tracts of working forest that he had ever seen,” said Herlevich. 

She won’t say exactly how much the land trust paid for the easement, except to note that it was a six-figure price.  The property appraised at four times the purchase price, Herlevich said. Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury, the state’s leading conservation philanthropists, provided all the money for the purchase, she said.

The owners, the Owens and Williams families, joined together to preserve their connections to the land for future generations.  “We are pleased to have worked with the Coastal Land Trust, and proud that the streams, forests and riverfront will be preserved into the future,” said Steven Owens, representative of HVW Legacy Holdings, the family company that owns the property.

Even the appraiser thought the tract was a beautiful example of a working forest. Photo: N.C. Coastal Land Trust

Sometimes called the “East Branch,” the Northeast Cape Fear River flows 130 miles from just south of Mount Olive in Duplin County, past Albertson and Chinquapin in Pender County. It joins the main channel of the Cape Fear at Point Peter, just north of downtown Wilmington.

Palmetto and cypress grow along its banks. Alligators lurk in its waters and pileated woodpeckers nest in its trees. Researchers at the University of North Carolina Wilmington found that the river is home to at least 45 species of fish. Crappie fishing is especially popular along the river, with Prince George Creek, Long Creek, Morgan Creek and Island Creek known as particularly good fishing spots.

No wonder, then, that the Northeast Cape Fear has been a focus for the land trust since 1999, when the Thomas family donated a conservation easement of over 1,200 acres at its Five Eagle Partners Farm. Since then, the land trust has protected another 10 places on the river or its tributaries, primarily in Pender County. The latest purchase brings the total to more than 7,300 acres that the land trust has preserved along the river.

The land trust has the right idea, noted Mike Giles, a coastal advocate for the N.C. Coastal Federation who has been among the leaders in the fight to stop Titan America from building a cement plant along the river north of Wilmington.  “The land trust’s preservation efforts along the river provide an alternate vision of what the river can be, rather than the industrial wasteland envisioned by Titan,” he said.

New Hanover County officials should also take note, Giles said. They are currently working on a long-range, comprehensive plan and economic strategy for the county, he noted. “They could include utilizing those unique river resources in a positive way while promoting a growing and sustainable economy,” Giles said.

The Eastern wild turkey is one of the success stories in wildlife management. In the in the early 1930s this grand game bird was on the verge of extinction. But today, thanks to hunters and wildlife restoration programs, the wild turkey is abundant and present throughout North Carolina. Like bears, turkeys need a varied habitat of both open and covered area. Gobblers have beards, as seen here, which are tufts of filaments, or modified feathers, growing out from the chest. Beards can grow to an average of 9 inches.

CASTLE HAYNE — Nestled among public streets and private property, the ubiquitous hidden camera is there to record what once went undetected. Even animals that roam the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River can no longer escape the watchful eye of technology.

Three environmental organizations have teamed up to get an up-close look at the behavior of terrestrial and avian wildlife that call the corridor around Castle Hayne home. Since February, officials from Cape Fear River Watch, the N.C. Coastal Federation and Wildlands Network have placed and monitored 24 cameras situated in areas likely to get significant animal activity.

“Together we’re focused on the Northeast Cape Fear because of the potential impact of the proposed Titan cement plant,” said Mike Giles, a coastal advocate for the federation who works out of the Wrightsville Beach office. “As we grow and proposer and develop, the habitat is getting fragmented. It’s getting divided by highways and by residential development that you see along the river and industrial development. And with industrial development comes other issues such as air pollution and impact to both the surface water and ground water.”

Titan America, based in Norfolk, Va., is planning to build a cement kiln and expanded limestone quarry on more than 1,800 acres along the Northeast Cape Fear River east of Castle Hayne. The proposal has resulted in years of fierce opposition from various environmental groups and residents, many of whom have formed the Stop Titan Action Network.

The wildlife cameras are the result of a one-year, $35,000 grant from wildlife philanthropists Brad and Shelli Stanback of Asheville. About $23,000 of that pays for equipment, primarily the Reconyx infrared trail cameras at $750 each as well as rechargeable lithium batteries, housing for the devices and special locks that secure the camouflaged devices to trees. The remaining money goes toward staff time required for the monthly changing of batteries and memory cards. Many of the cameras, which are positioned about two feet off the ground, are accessible only by boat.

The red fox can range in color from deep red to gray and are capable predators. It’s the largest of the foxes and the most geographically spread member of this species. Foxes have a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for centuries, as well as being prominently represented in human folklore and mythology. If you hear a haunting and sometimes frightening howling late at night in the springtime it is not the neighborhood cat but fox establishing his dominance during mating season.
These night pictures of what seems to be different black bears were taken in a span of five minutes off Island Creek in June. North American black bears may look smaller than other bears, but they are powerful and muscular. The average black bear weighs 150 to 300 pounds, and mature males can weigh as much as 600 pounds. Black bears are secretive and need large tracts of land to survive. They are omnivorous, which means they eat almost anything, including insects, honey, fruit, bark, nuts, small animals, garbage and carrion left by other predators. North American black bears live an average of 10 years, but some can survive in the wild for as long as 30 years.

On a muggy July afternoon, Giles and Kemp Burdette of Cape Fear River Watch navigated the Northeast Cape Fear in the federation’s 22-foot Jones Brothers skiff. Using GPS to locate the cameras, they coated themselves in bug spray and trekked through mud and brush to reach the devices and perform the necessary changing out, which takes only a few minutes per camera. The men sometimes encounter snakes, wasp nests and other potential hazards during this process.

The project has already netted thousands of images of species including various birds, whitetail deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, bobcats and even a black bear. The cameras take high-quality photos during the day and night as quickly as every fifth of a second, which enables them to capture fleeting images of animals that move rapidly.

Ron Sutherland, conservation scientist for Wildlands Network, has been involved with the project from the beginning and said the images collected thus far are fairly typical of what he would expect in the region.

“I think they are representative of an intact coastal terrain landscape,” he said. “I’m not surprised that there’s a good bit of wildlife along there, particularly in the wide open parts of it. It’s been impressive how many different species we’ve gotten so quickly and how robust the fauna seems to be.”

The photos are unique in that they show the animals “totally relaxed and just doing their thing,” in some instances “just sitting down in front of the camera,” Sutherland added.

The primary goal is to better illustrate the impact that the proposed Titan cement plant will have on this “biodiversity hotspot,” Giles said.

The most common wildcat in North America, the bobcat is named for its short, bobbed tail but are infrequently seen due to their shy and secretive nature. They are medium-sized cats and are slightly smaller but similar in appearance to their cousin, the lynx. Their coats vary in color from shades of beige to brown fur with spotted or lined markings in dark brown or black. This cat is a large mature female and haunts deep forests and swamps throughout North Carolina. Similar in habitat needs to bears, the deep forests and river bottom lands are critical to the survival of this magnificent feline. Females never share territory with each other while male territories tend to overlap.

“Wildlife can coexist with good development,” he said. “We feel Titan is not the type of development and industrial use that this type of disappearing landscape can tolerate.”

But the project also sends a larger environmental message, Giles added. It’s about showing why it’s necessary to preserve the few remaining large tracts of undisturbed habitat that are crucial for many species to survive, he said.

“The program is meant as public education to say this is what’s here, this is why the Northeast Cape Fear River is special and this is what lives here and it’s important,” Giles said. “If we continue on our path of development and degradation of this ecosystem, this eco-region, we’ll lose those animals. They’re already squeezed. This is the place they have left to live.”

Eventually, the three groups involved in the wildlife cameras project hope to have many of the photos available to view on their websites. They’re also planning a press conference and unveiling of some of the best images sometime in early fall.

While initial funding was for one year, Giles and others hope the Stanbacks will continue to support the project for an additional year or two.

“This is all part of a concerted effort to let the people know how special these places like this are, not only to public use and enjoyment but also to our economy,” Giles said. “This produces jobs. Recreation, tourism and fishing produce a lot more jobs than Titan cement will ever produce.”

The Northeast Cape Fear River lumbers for about 130 miles through the state’s southeastern coastal plain before joining its larger sister, the Cape Fear, north of Wilmington.

CASTLE HAYNE — Andy Wood leads our two-person pilgrimage to see a 1,000-year-old cypress along the Northeast Cape Fear River. The mighty tree has lost her neighbors. One went down with Hurricane Fran in 1996. Hundreds more have dropped away from pollution and saltwater intrusion. It used to be a more robust-looking canopy. Ten years ago, it looked better than that,” Wood admits. “She’s one of the last of the big ones here.

Wood, director of the Coastal Plain Conservation Group, is armed with a dipping net and glass jars as he walks along the trail near Hampstead. The path is just a thin strip of land separating the swamp and the Northeast Cape Fear. The roadbed dates back to the 1800s when we might have travelled, not on our feet, but instead by horse and carriage.

The Northeast Cape Fear runs for about 130 miles through the southeast coastal plain of North Carolina, twisting and meandering along a path of least resistance. Not quite as big as its neighbor, the Cape Fear River, the Northeast Cape Fear is a true tributary. The river is amber-colored– dark due to the organic debris that settles at its bottom.

From top: Bald eagles, alligators and red-cockaded woodpeckers are some of the endangered or threatened species that live along the Northeast Cape Fear River.

Wood walks along the trail, pointing out several species that make this river special. We pass a manmade impoundment, which Wood notes the N.C. Wildlife Resource Commission staff manages with the aid of Castor canadensis – beavers.

We nearly miss a brown water snake sunbathing. Wood observes rake marks in the mud nearby and guesses a black bear was looking for its next meal. American holly, a treat for many of the area’s songbirds, abounds.

According to Wood, a conservationist, several species found in or around the Northeast Cape Fear are threatened or endangered. These include the bald eagle, the American alligator and the red-cockaded woodpecker.

Wood moved to Wilmington in the mid-1980s and worked as the education curator for the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Now, he teaches others in hopes of illustrating the connection between land and water. For example, the wetlands we hike along today are soaking up harmful pollutants and filtering water before releasing it back into the river.

“Like the liver and kidneys,” Wood said. “Or a giant sponge.”

His return to his first love – freshwater – was motivated by the time spent as a kid in swamps. “I was fortunate to grow up outdoors,” he said. “My friends wanted to play war, and I wanted to look for salamanders.”

Chances are, had they grown up together, Andy Wood and Charles “C.R.” Robbins would have been the best of friends. Robbins, the owner of Cape Fear River Adventures, remembers getting lost in surrounding swamps at just nine years old.

After working in the northwestern part of the United States as a wilderness area guide, he returned to this region. Today, on his guided river tours, Robbins also teaches about the Cape river basin. He discusses stricter fisheries management and pollution policies adopted on the Northwest river system.

He encourages boaters to exercise “take-in, take-out” practices. It is simple, really: Everything you bring onto the river should leave with you.

Yet by Wood and Robbins’s accounts, the Northeast Cape Fear resembles a war-torn soldier. In recent decades, the river has combated heavy pollution from hog farms and an oil spill from a metal recycling plant. The results are obvious, Robbins said.

“You can drive up I-40 where several drainages used to be. There were cypress tress growing, along with swamp gums and the pines. They were living areas,” Robbins said.

“I’ve watched them over the last ten or twelve years die away,” he said. “They deteriorated quicker than any areas of trees I’ve ever seen.”

This deterioration has been due, in large part, to the region’s heavy concentration of large poultry and swine farms. Pollution regulations are present, but policing is not.

“The waste ends up in the water table and in the runoff and in the creeks,” Robbins said, nodding toward the Northeast Cape Fear. “Everything drains into another creek and another creek and finally here.”

Now, the Northeast Cape Fear faces perhaps its biggest challenge: Titan America. The cement manufacturer has plans to build one of the largest cement plants in the country along the river’s banks in Castle Hayne, near Wilmington.

By Wood’s estimate, the destruction of more than a thousand acres of surrounding bottomland swamp would be only an initial consequence of the plant’s construction. Cement production would also emit harmful air pollutants, a risk to public health, and stress surface and ground water resources.

Together with the N.C. Coastal Federation, average citizens like Wood and Robbins have worked tirelessly to stop Titan for five long years. Their successes have been hard-won.

In 2010, the federation joined other organizations to successfully sue the state to force the cement company to conduct a required federal comprehensive review before it received any state permits. Because Titan had received public funding for their project, a review was required. Following the court’s ruling, Titan decided not to accept public funding, thereby evading any review. The court was forced to reverse its decision.

In November 2011, New Hanover County commissioners voted to require heavy industry like Titan America to apply for an additional special-use permit. The permit requires Titan to publically address potential adverse effects to public health and safety, as well as surrounding land values.

Naturalist Andy Wood worries what destroying wetlands for the proposed Titan Cement plant will do to the river.

The proposed Titan plant will occupy the site of an old cement plant.

More than 240 local doctors and health care providers have voiced their opinions on public health issues related to Titan’s proposed plant move-in. More than 15,000 citizen signatures opposing the Titan Cement project have been collected.

At any opportunity, Robbins says he will continue to plant more seeds, by educating others and getting the word out.

“I have signs up at my house. I talk to my neighbors,” Robbins said. “I show up in my ‘Stop Titan’ shirt.”

Wood’s advice for people is simple, too. “We have to lead by example,” he said. “We must recognize that what we do depends on the ecosystem services provided by the Northeast Cape Fear.”

The battered and bruised struggle that belongs to the Northeast Cape Fear is also a story of its own survival, despite everything. Robbins relays stories from older residents, who frequently witnessed the now-threatened sturgeon running into nets stretched across the river. Just last year, Robbins saw a six-foot sturgeon.

“I would like to see them come back here. It’s their natural way,” he said. “They want to get back.”

In a sense, people like Wood and Robbins all want to get back. To their childhoods. To the sturgeon. To the living cypress. It is the reason they support the work of the federation. It is the reason they continue to fight against Titan America.

“If it does happen, it’s going to change this area dramatically. Permanently,” Robbins said. “It’s not going to be something you can fix.”

“This is such a special place out here,” he said. “You can’t replace it.”