3609 Hwy 24 (Ocean) | Newport, North Carolina 28570

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 June 26,2003

Cape Lookout Coastkeeper, Frank Tursi
252-393-8185 or 252-241-3505
lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org

 Coastkeeper Website Keeps
Tabs on Polluters

     Ocean – Chronic polluters of North Carolina's coastal waters can no longer hide in the shadows of bureaucracy. Their dirty deeds are there for all to see on a new website developed by the N.C. Coastal Federation's Coastkeepers.
     The Coastkeepers' Sewer Patrol at www.nccoast.org/CKSewer/CKsewer.htm highlights the misdoings of chronic polluters in eight counties along the southern and central coast. The website contains a comprehensive database by county of all sewage dischargers that were fined at least twice in the last five years. It also ranks the most chronic polluters, profiles individual polluters and lists those who were recently fined by the state. People who log onto the website will also get valuable information on the state's enforcement program and will learn how to track polluters in their region and how to report suspected violations.
     The site will be updated monthly and will eventually include all chronic polluters along the coast.
     Drawing attention to what is now a quiet process should improve enforcement, said Frank Tursi, the Federation's Cape Lookout Coastkeeper. "Right now when one of these polluters is fined, the only people who know about it are the polluter and the state agency," he said. "These polluters continue to break the law with little public scrutiny. The website sheds some light on them. If they know what's going on, people may demand that something be done about it."
     The website stems from an investigation of sewer plants that Tursi and Ted Wilgis, the Federation's Cape Fear Coastkeeper, did late last year. They found 59 plants in that eight-county region had violated their pollution limits so often that they were fined at least twice since 1998 by the state's Division of Water Quality. The state fined the worst ones dozens of times. Yet, the repeated fines and stern warnings did little to prevent many of the violators from renewing their permits to continue polluting coastal waters.
     "These permits are always renewed and never revoked," Tursi said. "We found numerous instances in the files of state regulators writing stern warnings to polluters one month and then renewing the permits a couple of months later. What we uncovered is a considerable chink in the conventional wisdom that sewer plants aren't problems anymore."
     Sentry Utilities, a private utility company that serves the Springdale Acres subdivision near Jacksonville, was fined 27 times since 1998, including twice in January. It remains the most-chronic polluter in the region. Other top polluters who were fined since the Coastkeepers completed their report: the Holly Ridge sewer plant and Rexon-Collins Mobile Home in Onslow County, the sewer plant at Leland Industrial Park in Brunswick County, and the Magnolia sewer plant in Duplin County.
     "Our hope is that people will log onto this page often to keep track of violators in their neighborhoods and will use the information on the site to monitor violators," Tursi said. "People will now be watching. That can only improve enforcement."