This begins a two-part series.

By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE and
BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Daily News Staff
Martin Marietta Materials plans to open an aggregate mine providing rock for road construction and other applications, making a multi-million-dollar investment in the community.
But some residents and local environmentalists are worried about the company’s proposed open-pit operation, which they say could adversely affect wildlife, waterways and quality of life.
On both sides, there is no shortage of opinions about what the mine could mean for Beaufort County.
Robert Ebe is a retired UPS employee and a resident of Blount’s Creek.
He said the creek and the opportunities it offers for recreation and fishing are a big draw for people moving into the area. He has spent the past two weeks alerting members of the community to the mine project.
“The creek is what’s drawing a lot of people here,” he said. “We moved down here because of the water access to Blount’s Creek.”
Ebe added he’s not an environmentalist, “But I don’t want people to decimate a natural resource.”
Paxton Badham is vice president of land and environment for Martin Marietta, which is pursuing permits to begin its mining project.
Badham said the mine — which reportedly would cover 649 acres — would be surrounded by a 90,000-acre timber plantation, land leased from Weyerhaeuser Co.
“I don’t know anybody is going to know we’re there except trucks will occasionally come out on the public highways from there,” he said.
The mine would be around 100 feet deep with an on-site rock-crushing operation and related activities. The facility would be sited about seven miles east of U.S. Highway 17 near the Craven County-Beaufort County line.
Martin Marietta identified the site as workable for its purposes by boring test holes, Badham said. The company already had a relationship with Weyerhaeuser, with which it had some other leases. Badham said Martin Marietta asked the timber company for permission to test the pine plantation to ensure it harbored the right type of rock.
The project was broached six or seven years ago, he said.
“It’s a good site A, because there’s rock there,” Badham explained. “And, as you may or may not know, in the coastal part of North Carolina quality marine limestone — that is, marine limestone that is suitable for use by DOT and asphalt producers and mixed concrete producers — that type of material is difficult to find.”
Getting environmental permits for this kind of mining can present difficulties because desired deposits often lie too close to the coast to be safely extracted, he said.
“This deposit is plenty far distant from any saltwater intrusion issues,” Badham continued. “The rock is good and it’s a large piece of land.”
Initially, the quarry would be a relatively small one, starting with 10 to 15 employees. As the pit develops, the company could employ 20 to 25 people on the site, making an investment of $20 million to $25 million in the plant and equipment, Badham said.
Much of this depends on market demand, he cautioned.
“We don’t use polluting things,” he said. “We do blast the rock up but, after that, it’s not more than crushing it up and putting it in piles. We’re not a polluter of any kind.”
Badham asserted the mine’s wastewater discharge wouldn’t adversely affect area waterways.
“I regret that it’s caused consternation in the public and I hope we can get those things addressed,” he said.
Though there’s no way to know how productive the mine might be, “It’s a multi-year operation,” and could last 40 to 50 years, Badham said.

Permits

Martin Marietta has received a mining permit from the N.C. Division of Land Resources for the “Vanceboro Quarry,” as it’s named on the division’s website.
At least three more permits are needed for the company to carry out its full plans for the land.
The company has applied for a permit for “mine dewatering” through the N.C. Division of Water Quality, said Al Hodge, a supervisor in the division’s Washington office.
The mine could release 9 million gallons of wastewater per day, said Heather Deck, riverkeeper for the nonprofit Pamlico-Tar River Foundation in Washington.
The water would be pumped out of the mine into holding ponds, Deck said. From there, it would flow through a ditch network into two upper tributaries of Blount’s Creek, which empties into the Pamlico River, she shared.
“Obviously, the concern is for an input of pollution,” Deck said.
The wastewater permit application is under evaluation at DWQ’s Washington office.
“We have not commented on that application here locally yet,” Hodge said.
As part of its evaluation process, DWQ is conferring with the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries and Wildlife Resources Commission.
DWQ could issue comments on the application by the end of this month, Hodge related.
“The public will have a chance to comment on that once it goes to public notice,” Hodge said of the application.
DWQ also may issue what’s called a 401 certification in response to a different application dealing with wetlands within the company’s projected mining footprint, according to Hodge. This application deals with the company’s strategy for mitigating the loss of wetlands, he said.
In compensation for this loss, Martin Marietta could create wetlands somewhere else or take advantage of other mitigation options permissible by the state, according to Hodge.
A federal application — focusing on wetlands covered under Section 404 of the national Clean Water Act — is being processed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The public-comment period on this federal application originally expired in December, but has been extended to Jan. 18.
“Total impacts for the built-out condition of the mine include 6.69 acres of jurisdictional non-riparian wetlands and 58,671 linear feet of jurisdictional man-made ditches,” reads a public notice published by the Corps of Engineers. “To mitigate for the proposed impacts the applicant proposes to restore 6.75 acres of non-riparian wetland via payment into the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program.”
The Ecosystem Enhancement Program is an N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources “initiative that restores and protects wetlands and waterways for future generations while offsetting unavoidable environmental damage from economic development,” its website reads.
The Corps of Engineers generally doesn’t make a final permitting decision until DWQ “issues, denies, or waives” state certification required by Section 401, the public notice shows.

Concerns

At least one state agency continues to have concerns about the effects of the project on Blount’s Creek. In official comments to the Corps of Engineers issued on Jan. 3, the Division of Marine Fisheries says it “has concerns regarding the discharge and the significant adverse impacts on the Blounts Bay aquatic community.”
Blount’s Creek is used by migrating fish such as striped bass and, historically, river herring, for spawning and nursery areas as well as resident species such as catfish and pickerels.
The discharge of 9 million gallons of fresh water a day, pumped from the Castle Hayne aquifer into the brackish creek, is expected to reduce the salinity of the creek and otherwise alter the environment of the creek, according to a memo written by Kevin Hart, a marine biologist with DMF.
“In addition to salinity changes, flows will change in the headwater swamps of Blounts Creek,” the memo reads. “These changes of flows can have adverse impacts on all life stages of fishes as well as changing the prey for these fishes.”
In his memo, Hart also raises concerns that the fish community was not adequately sampled by Martin Marietta to address season differences in the species of fish found in the creek.
The series concludes Tuesday.