SOUTHERN COALITION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
For Immediate Release:
Friday, February 12, 2010
Contacts:
Chris Brook, Staff Attorney, Southern Coalition for Social Justice
(919) 323-3380×113; Chris@Southerncoalition.org
New Hill, N.C. – On Tuesday February 9, 2010, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice submitted an official response on behalf of the New Hill Community Association to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding the Corps’ Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). Released December 18, 2009, the document examines a proposed wastewater treatment facility in the New Hill community (also referred to as Site 14).
New Hill is a rural, majority-minority community in Western Wake County, located near the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant. Residents have been opposing the placement of the plant in their community since 2005; community members are calling it a case of environmental racism and have received the support of the NC Environmental Justice Network, the NAACP, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Next Saturday, February 27, New Hill residents and supporters will be marching in HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) with other communities from across North Carolina. The event begins at 9:30am at Shaw University and ends at the North Carolina Legislative Building. Point 10 of the HKonJ Peoples Agenda is “Promote Environmental Justice.” They will be available for media interviews at the event (contact Rev. Clanton during the event). The wastewater plant would serve nearby Apex, Cary, Holly Springs, and Morrisville, not New Hill.
THE KEY FINDINGS AND CONCERNS OF THE RESPONSE ARE:
- Site 14 has a much larger human and environmental justice impacts than other suitable alternatives considered by the FEIS in the vicinity of New Hill.
- The FEIS does not make clear how the disposal sewage sludge, which contains “a wide range of toxic substances and chemical compounds,” will occur. Options under consideration include land application, which has potential groundwater impacts, and incineration, which would result in residents of downwind communities inhaling sewage sludge residue.
- The selection of Site 14 will have a direct and major impact on the New Hill Historic District.
- The selection of Site 14 was reverse-engineered via the commitment of Western Wake Partner resources and money prior to the consideration of human and environmental impacts associated with this site. This reverse engineering has short-circuited a true consideration of alternative sites.
- The choice of the Cape Fear River as the discharge point for the sewage treatment plant was reverse engineered and alternatives were not adequately considered. An alternative scenario involving discharge to Harris Lake, which would involve much less sewage pumping, fewer water quality implications, and no impact upon the CFR’s Raven Rock State Park, is no longer under consideration. The Partners did not adequately consider this discharge point and now are unwilling to complete a thorough review of this option.
SCSJ staff attorney Chris Brook states: “The recently published Final Environmental Impact Statement fails to either inform the public of impacts from the proposed action or compare viable alternatives. Instead, they have rationalized the siting of a sewage treatment plant in the middle of the New Hill community. The process of considering alternatives remains tainted by the Western Wake Partners condemnation of land for the sewage treatment plant before considering the site’s environmental or human impacts. How can the public trust all options are considered equally when the parties pushing the project have already invested millions in their preferred site?”
For more information, the full report, and copies of letters to the Army Corps of Engineers visit:
www.SCSJ.org/newhill
www.NewHillCA.org