Brunswick Environmental Action Team
BEAT sincerely wishes everyone a Happy Earth Day 2023! We are grateful to all who continue to share both their ideas and work so that we may continue to exist in peace while making use of the life sustaining energy that our Earth provides for us every day - To optimize our survival.
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
Speaking to DAQ/DEQ in Columbus County to Express Opposition to Permitting the Use of the Highly Toxic Methyl Bromide Near a School and Several Communities on May 3, 2018
Photo: Sybil Burgess Murray
Sybil Burgess Murray's Facebook posting of the Public Comments session: (https://www.facebook.com/sybil.b.murray/posts/10213515913244727)
Well they didn't think that the public hearing on locating a log fumigation plant which uses the toxic and persistent methyl bromide would be such a big deal! However, people were pouring in when I got to Acme-Delco school! I put my BEAT T-shirt on and entered a packed school cafeteria! The pros and cons were presented to the Dept of Environ Quality and the "cons" definitely won. So many people were there that the Fire Marshal shut us down! Then DEQ moved us to the gym and the company officials went home!
So many good points were made that the DEQ is scheduling another meeting. Here are a few of the points that I want to share.
(1) Why locate in Delco when methyl bromide fumigation banned in so many places? Could it be that the company just did not think these "country" people knew what was going on? SURPRISE!
(2) According to local loggers (one who spoke and the other I chatted with) they don't have to kill the beetles with the methyl bromide, they can just strip the bark off. It just takes a few more workers!
(3) One of my former students, also a chemist and chemical industry supervisor spoke and said "duct tape and sand bags is not environmental control!" and that she would never subject her employees to the kind of working conditions proposed. (I am so proud of her!)
(4) Brunswick Environmental Action Team (BEAT) was represented by Dwight Frederick Willis in his normal eloquent manner. Others that spoke were from all races, professions, ages and faiths. Not your "hippie" "tree hugging" types here. The Delco community is heavily invested in logging, but about 200 of them came together tonight to demand that the logs be "debugged" in a way that keeps their children safe. These ARE my people, my neighbors across the river. I have known some of them for 30 years. They are country, plain-spoken Americans and they are NOT going to be played for fools! We will see each other at round two!