Brunswick Environmental Action Team
BEAT was happy to be invited to the 2022 Oak Island Earth Day Festival, April 2022. Thank you Oak Island for allowing us to share ideas about how we can continue to work together to thrive while peacefully making use of the life sustaining energy that our Earth provides for us every day - To optimize our ongoing survival and a deeply shared happy and healthy existence.
BEAT received an email from: Melissa Edmonds <medmonds@selcnc.org> of the Southern Environmental Law Center on September 9, 2022 at 12:32:50 PM EDT. The subject of the email was Offshore Drilling Comment Opportunity. BEAT leadership would like to share this message with you here. The text that follows is the body of the message in its entirety.
Hi all,
I hope this note finds you well! You are receiving this email because you have previously been involved in SELC’s campaign to fight offshore drilling, by signing onto our comment letters to oppose drilling in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico. I am writing now to alert you of another important comment opportunity on the issue of offshore drilling in these regions.
SELC is currently preparing comments on the Biden administration’s Proposed Five Year Plan for offshore drilling, which removes all Atlantic Planning Areas from consideration, yet still proposes to hold lease sales in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico. Comments are due Oct. 6. As usual, our comments will be focused on the Gulf and the Southeast; we plan to thank BOEM for listening to the voices of the East Coast by removing the Atlantic, and further urge no new leasing in the Gulf of Mexico because of the continued harm from offshore drilling on Gulf communities and natural resources and on climate change.
SELC supports responsible offshore wind development as a critically important piece in the necessary clean energy transition to address the climate crisis, but we do not support provisions within the Inflation Reduction Act that tie future offshore wind leasing to continued oil and gas leasing. We are planning to make this distinction in our comments, but please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns with this approach.
If you are potentially interested in signing on and have input as we draft, please let me know ASAP, as we are working on drafting the comments now. We will circulate a draft on Sept. 23, accept feedback through Sept. 28, and take final sign-ons through Oct. 5.
Thank you all for being valued partners in this important issue, we look forward to your continued support throughout this fight!
Melissa L. Edmonds (Whaling) (she/her)
Science & Policy Analyst
Southern Environmental Law Center
601 West Rosemary Street, Suite 220
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Office (919) 391-4099
Mobile (919) 623-5003
Dear visitor, below is a message BEAT received from "Emily Donovan via ActionNetwork.org" <info@email.actionnetwork.org>
The subject of her message regards
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED:
Say: "No More Chemours!"
BEAT received this message on: September 10, 2022 at 12:36:12 PM EDT
Her message is shared here in its entiretity.
Friends,
It's time to mobilize like never before. Chemours just announced they want to EXPAND their toxic PFAS production in NC. We don’t feel they’ve earned this right–especially when they’ve failed to deliver on the most basic promises to our community.
We believe the majority of control measures taken, so far, are because Chemours was legally forced to comply via a 2019 consent order established by our friends at Cape Fear River Watch. However, it’s important to remember, consent orders are only as good as they are being enforced. Sadly, strong enforcement of the Chemours consent order has taken constant pressure from dedicated folks like you, who are determined to hold both DEQ and Chemours’ feet to the fire.
Here’s a quick summary of how Chemours has “helped” us:
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They've been dragging their feet on establishing toxicity studies required by the 2019 consent order.
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They have made private well owners wait 6 months with no replacement water.
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They refuse to meet the needs of commissioners in Cumberland County and are now being sued.
Chemours has not earned the right to expand in NC and we are counting on you to help them get the message. Chemours is hosting a public information session at Leland Cultural Arts Center, Wednesday, September 21st from 5:00pm - 7:00pm. Click here to RSVP We’ll send you talking points in the next two weeks to help you feel prepared.
In the meantime, please share our event link on social media and with your fellow neighbors. Media will be present at this meeting, so it’s vital that we show a united front against Chemours. We cannot allow them to add another drop of their poison to our water.
With gratitude,
Emily Donovan, cofounder
Clean Cape Fear
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE BEAT LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR the Brunswick County NAACP’s proposed Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Multi-Use Greenway/Blueway Trail, Brunswick County, North Carolina
FYI: An Informative PDF about PFAS as it Relates to Brunswick County in 2020 - by Eugene Rozenbaoum of LG Chem
Brief History of BEAT
The original Brunswick Environmental Action Team (BEAT) was created by Jan Harris of Sunset Beach. Jan and her husband purchased property on Sunset Beach Island in the mid-1970s and spent considerable time there until moving in full-time in 1995. At that time, being already familiar with environmental concerns in the area, Jan invited people known to be interested in the environment to her house. The original BEAT was formed in these meetings in September 1996 and had representatives from every coastal town in Brunswick County.
In its ten years of existence BEAT sponsored educational symposia on issues such as CAMA (Coastal Area Management Act), land use planning (held at Brunswick Community College), the quality of local water supplies (held at Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation), stormwater runoff (held at Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation), and the 30-foot buffer rule (held at the Coastal Museum at Ocean Isle Beach). In addition BEAT also commented at Coastal Resources Commission meetings, commented on many CAMA Permits, and was granted the right to go forward with a Third -Party Appeal Hearing on Riverside Drive in Sunset Beach. However, over the years, attrition due to death and ailing health took its toll on the Board, and BEAT ceased activities.
The second iteration of BEAT occurred in 2017. In April 2016 the Sunset Beach Town Council had created an Environmental Resources Committee. The mission of the committee was expressed as: The Sunset Beach Environmental Committee (SBERC) shall keep abreast and update both the Council and Planning Board of proposed legislation and technological changes of an environmental nature that may affect our Town and geographic region and research specific issues of an environmental nature as directed by Council. Five excellent individuals (Richard Hilderman, Jan Harris, Neil Gilbert, Gary Merritt, and Sandy Payne) were appointed to the committee.
However, frustration among committee members and supporters of the committee developed when it seemed that a majority of Town Council members viewed the SBERC solely as an appendage of the Council with the freedom to study and report only on issues assigned by the Council. In addition, findings and recommendations of the committee on certain environmental issues (especially dredging within the community) were dismissed by the majority when they did not correspond to their desired positions. One year after the committee was formed, all five members resigned in protest of comments and decisions made by the Town Council majority.
The now-former members of the SBERC used this unfortunate situation as a springboard for resurrecting the Brunswick Environmental Action Team. News of BEAT’s revival spread, and individuals from all areas of Brunswick County with genuine concern about the environment came forward to sign on to the new group. On April 9th, 2017 more than 30 individuals came together to begin organizational work on the new BEAT and on efforts to protect the natural environment of Brunswick County. By that summer, BEAT's membership had grown to more than 200 persons, and a new and important grass roots movement had emerged.