Round 2: 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 15, 2018

The May 3rd meeting sponsored by the Division of Air Quality of the Department of Environmental Quality brought out so many local citizens who wanted to express their opposition to the local use of methyl bromide that a second meeting had to be scheduled. The second meeting occurred on Monday, May 15th and even more citizens attended!

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The issue was a variance that an Australian company, Malec Brothers, had applied for to use the highly toxic compound, methyl bromide, in the fumigation of logs that were to be exported to China. The company's plan would have released into the air extraordinarily high levels of methyl bromide - a product banned in most countries in the early 2000s - near a middle school in Delco (just over the Brunswick County line in Columbus County ) and several nearby small communities. Both Morehead City and Wilmington rejected the idea, so the company turned to Columbus County.

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Dr. Dwight Willis spoke at the May 3rd meeting and both Dan George and Marilyn Priddy spoke at the May 15th meeting, and like all of the local residents who spoke, were very eloquent in objecting to this permit.