Four NC legislators support phosphate mining expansion

NORTH CAROLINA: Lawmakers show support for phosphate mining expansion

Four legislators from North Carolina are urging environmental regulators to drop further objections to a mining company's expansion plans in Eastern North Carolina.

The plan would entail extensive destruction of wetlands.

PCS Phosphate wants federal permits to continue mining of phosphate ore along the Pamlico River in Beaufort County for 30 more years. The company initially submitted its request for the permit in 2000.

Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan and Reps. Walter Jones and G.K. Butterfield sent a letter to the regional director of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta, expressing concern that EPA might not accept PCS Phosphate's plan to expand its mining operations. Three of those who signed the letter -- Burr and Jones, who are Republicans, and Butterfield, a Democrat -- have received campaign contributions from the mining company's political committee, its executives, or both.

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