"Under federal law, a company can destroy wetlands if it shows its plan does the least environmental harm and is the most economically viable."
A federal law has allowed the Army corp of engineers to mine an additional 11,000 acres and permits them to destroy any natural wetland they need to in order to continue mining. The United States is one of the worlds top producers of the mineral being mined, phosphate. Most of it comes from Florida and North Carolina. The mining is taking place in Beaufort County and will continue for another 35 years. This is clearly going to be an environmental hazard from dumping and the flat out destruction of the nearby wetlands. They also weren't content with just that, they pushed to get permission to mine in a nearby hardwood forest and were granted that as well.
I think it's a terrible decision to sacrifice even more natural habitat to the pit-mine menace. Innumerable animals will be wiped out and all for the production of, primarily, soda and jelly. It seems a terrible waste of such a unique pocket of the natural world for an unsightly hole in the ground.This destruction and pollution of the Pamlico River area with phosphate mine waste should not be ignored like the many thousands of other unjust cases of environmental rape.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1368664.html
1 comment:
I do believe this is terrible as well, especially that there are laws that permit this. Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of ecosystems, and its a shame that its been destroyed,leaving many species without an habitat.
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