Beaufort County Commissioners hear from citizens on separate issues | Eastern North Carolina Now

   At their January 9, 2012 general meeting, the Beaufort County's Commissioners heard from the public on mostly two separate issues: the proposed Martin Marietta mine in Wilmar and the proposed Invergy wind farm in the Pantego Township. During the 20 minute public comment section of the county commissioners' general meeting, which was expanded to 30 minutes, they heard form citizens on three subjects: Beaufort County EDC, proposed Pantego wind farm, and the proposed Martin Marietta mine. Primarily, the bulk of the citizens were there to voice their comments in opposition to the martin Marietta mine.

   Directly after the public comment period, Citizen Activist / Scientist Joun Droz, Jr. spoke in opposition of the Pantego wind farm, and wind energy as a whole. His presentation ran between 25 and 30 minutes.

   Before we delve into the Droz power point presentation in opposition to wind energy, we'll provide a few points of interest from the public comments segment of that general meeting.

   Pantego Wind Farm:

     Larry Hodges spoke against the wind farm in favor of the Pungo Wildlife Reserve and other environmental concerns. He had brought those concerns before the board of county commissioners at an earlier meeting.

   Martin Marietta Rock Quarry

     Russell Morgan advocated a spray irrigation field to handle the proposed 9 million gallons per day of effluent from the mining operation.

     Bob Boulder, a retired environmental engineer, wisely advised the concerned citizens present to not spend so much of their effort with the Beaufort County Commissioners, but with the regulatory agencies that are in control of collecting and analyzing the data. He made mention that the representatives that he had met were courteous and informed.

     Conversely, Kathleen Taylor requested that the Beaufort County Commissioners demand an environmental impact statement.

      Don Distefano explained that his math concluded that it would only take 100 days for the estimated 9,000,000 gallons of fresh water per day, that will be returned to the Blounts Creek watershed due to the mining process, to pass through the creek. Confused yet?

     Bill Risk challenged the county commissioners to be good stewards of the county.

     Stanley Sheets wondered aloud, why are we (I suppose he meant the collective "we") not looking at PCS for the mined material rather than doing a new mine operation, such as the Martin Marietta project?

     Diane Overton voiced her concerns over the destruction the county roads by the trucks that would carry the material.

   Beaufort County EDC

   Warren Smith spoke on the ongoing failing of the Beaufort County EDC stressing "that the horse was definitely behind the cart." He continued, "the least we can do is ask for data that they can stand behind."

   Mr. Smith continued, "Moving the EDC to provide information is like kicking a mattress." Now this was funny.

   John Droz Jr. and the Pantego Wind Farm

   Self-proclaimed physicist, economist and environmentalist John Droz. Jr. witnessed to the Beaufort County Commissioners that not only should the the Pantego Wind Farm project not be constructed, but no wind turbine generating power should be erected anywhere.

   Under the byline of: Wind energy = High costs, low benefits, Mr. Droz spoke for nearly 30 minutes via his well articulated power point presentation compared the promoters of this form of "green energy" to moral ambiguity of a Bernie Madoff - I counted twice that he used that reference.

   Furthermore, Environmental Activist Droz stressed that each turbine generating and storing electricity needed 4,000 pounds of expensive, toxic rare earth to function. He also made mention that the Pantego Wind Farm would eventually suffer under the toxic weight of 250,000 pounds of toxic and radioactive waste.

   In addition to the various toxic wastes, Mr. Droz also stated that Beaufort County would suffer from a net loss in jobs as a result of the Pantego Wind Farm. For some unknown reason, hearing this proposed possibility of net job loss did not sound so bad after considering the 250,000 pounds of radioactive toxic waste.