PCS phosphate mine (NC)
Near the mouth of North Carolina’s Pamlico River, a company is seeking government permission to destroy more than 4,100 acres of wetlands and three miles of streams as it expands its phosphate mining operation. To be carried out over the next 37 years, PCS Phosphate’s mining project would severely degrade tidal creeks feeding valuable nurseries for marine life, and it would destroy one of the best examples of a nonriverine wet hardwood forest—a rare and rapidly vanishing forest ecosystem.
©SELC
A phosphate mining company wants to destroy more than 4,100 acres of wetlands and three miles of streams as it expands its operation near the mouth of North Carolina’s Pamlico River.
The plan requires approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has released a final environmental impact statement on the project. The Corps, however, has failed to give adequate consideration to less destructive alternatives to the proposal, which it is required to do by law. The agency also has failed to respond to an expert technical critique of the environmental analysis, which is also a legal requirement, and it has illegally ignored detailed objections raised by our partner group in the case, the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation.
©SELC
Phosphate mining will destroy a rare, ecological gem in North Carolina's coastal plain.
SELC and the foundation are advocating an alternative plan that would be economically viable for PCS Phosphate and that would cut by nearly half the wetlands destroyed by the project. Our proposal would affect 2,285 acres of wetlands over the next 27 years. It would avoid nearly all the wetlands surrounding essential aquatic nursery areas, and it would save most of a 200-acre stand of nonriverine wet hardwood forest.
An Ecological Gem in Rapid Decline
Also called oak flats, nonriverine wet hardwood forests were once widespread on North Carolina’s coastal plain. They are now among the most threatened of North Carolina’s natural communities. According to a study by Michael Schafale of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, these forests have been reduced to a mere fraction of their former range. Today, only 25 sites remain in the state, and they stand threatened by the PCS Phosphate mine is one of only eight that exceeds 100 acres. In fact, this forest type has declined from 13,885 acres in the state in 1990 to 5,576 today. Only about 600 acres are under protection.
