PCS Phosphate

The Board Meeting was held in Washington, NC and a large part of my attendance was to visit the PCS Phosphate plant. PCS Phosphate is the largest taxpayer and largest employer in Beaufort County. PCS employs 1,000 direct employees and between 500 and 1,000 contract employees. There are also other local industries who make their living, indirectly, off of PCS - truck drivers, suppliers, restaurants, physicians and attorneys.

On our tour, we learned that the area that we were in was, at one time, under water which explains all of the sea shells we saw around the plant!
PCS has been engaged in negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the state and federal level for 8+ years. These negotiations center around the ability to mine for phosphate. The initial proposal would allow for 45 years of mining, but compromises have been decreased to 35 years of mining. Tom Richter, Chairman of the Beaufort County Committee of 100, is very blunt about the repercussions of not obtaining the permit: "If PCS were to cave in, hypothetically, and accept something that gives them very limited time to mine, all we have done is postpone the inevitable. We have to remember that they are not allowed to mine translates into lost tax revenue and loss of future jobs. Give up enough land, and the remaining time left at the mine will be reduced to the point where it may not be effective to mine the ore. It may also cause the company to leave Beaufort County in our lifetime, which is totally unnecessary. The company could be there for another 100 years if allowed to mine effectively."

The hurdle to obtain a permit comes from the threat to water quality and the destruction of wetlands. Tom Richter, again, comments on this issue. "The experts in charge of that, the US Army Corps of Engineers, have determined that the impact is well within the limits of the law, which is why it wants to issue the permit ... The mine pit itself will be over a hundred feet deep, so any fear of run off into South Creek is not valid; runoff will actually be reduced, not increased. Interestingly, of the 4,000 acres of 'pristine wetlands' the opponents claim, only 7 acres are water. The remainder is mostly what we see all over eastern North Carolina ... Under the law, PCS has to add about two acres for every acre of wetland removed. In fact, the company has already created 2,500 acres of replacement wetlands even though the wetlands impact will occur over 35 years. That means, as we sit here, we have more wetlands today than last year.

(This photo is an example of an area that was previously mined and now there is new growth.)

The Beaufort County Commissioners took their fight to Washington, DC where they lobbied lawmakers for support on this issue. Senator Burr, Senator Hagan, Congressman Jones and Congressman Butterfield stood with them on this issue.

The day before we arrived, the EPA granted a permit to mine for until 2045.

A big thanks to Robert & Debra Rose Cayton who made this tour possible. Also, a big thanks goes out to the folks at PCS Phosphate who spent their time informing us all about this beneficial asset to Beaufort County and allowing us to have an onsite lunch with them!