North Carolina legislators may soon appoint a committee charged with investigating how the state environmental agency has handled the contaminated CTS site in Asheville. On April 11, the N.C. House adopted a resolution (HB 186) that calls for creating a “house select committee” for the issue. Rep. Tim Moffitt, Republican, was the primary sponsor. For the full bill, click here.
Tate MacQueen, a local resident who has long advocated for state and federal action to clean up the site, said in an email: “The truth will be revealed, and let us [hope] that it leads to real reform at NCDENR and EPA Region IV in how they conduct business. Perhaps their moral and ethical compasses can be calibrated back to true north [for] safeguarding human health and the environment.”
MacQueen and other residents meet with federal officials on Thursday, April 14, at 6 p.m. at the Skyland Fire Department. The EPA has proposed adding the property to the National Priorities List, which would place it among the nation’s Superfund sites and make it eligible for clean-up funds. For more information, see Mountain Xpress‘s many reports on the issue here. With help from local residents, Xpress first broke the story in 2007, with then-Green Scene Reporter Rebecca Bowe’s report, “Fail Safe?” [July 11].
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