CHAPEL HILL, NC (August 11, 2020) — The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), on behalf of Winyah Rivers Alliance, has notified Active Energy Renewable Power that the company must stop its unpermitted discharges of industrial stormwater into North Carolina's Lumber River. The British-owned company's sawmill operations in Robeson County, NC, are on property heavily contaminated with toxic solvents.

Winyah Rivers Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with a goal to protect, preserve, monitor, and revitalize the health of the lands and waters of the greater Winyah Bay watershed.

“Limiting industrial pollution improves the health of our water resources and the health of people,” said Heather Hillaker, staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Residents of nearby communities that are predominantly Native American and African American already are exposed to multiple sources of industrial pollution. The Lumber River, people who use the river, and people who live nearby deserve protection under the Clean Water Act from yet another source of pollution.”

The unpermitted stormwater discharges from the contaminated site where the company operates a sawmill are a violation of the US Clean Water Act. 

Active Energy sells lumber products and stores feedstock for a manufacturing facility it is planning to construct on the contaminated site, which will turn wood into coal-like "black pellets" for export to wood pellet markets in Europe and Asia. The manufacturing process would utilize groundwater from on-site wells as cooling water before releasing it into the Lumber River. In the past, groundwater on the site was contaminated with benzene, a pollutant known to cause cancer. Despite significant opposition, the North Carolina Division of Air Quality has permitted the wood pellet operation. However, according to SELC, Active Energy has not applied for the required Clean Water Act permit for the proposed plant's water discharges. 

“Active Energy’s ongoing and unpermitted sawmill operations are discharging oxygen-depleting pollutants into the Lumber River, a federally designated Natural and Scenic River,” says Winyah Rivers Alliance’s Lumber Riverkeeper, Jefferson Currie II. “The company is also planning to discharge wastewater polluted with volatile organic compounds and industrial solvents to the river. Without proper regulation and monitoring of these discharges, I worry about the level of pollutants the company will release into the Lumber River. To protect our waterways, the people of South Lumberton, and those who use and enjoy the river, Active Energy must have approved permits from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality for the stormwater and wastewater discharges.”

Pollutants from the accumulated materials currently stored on-site as part of the operating sawmill can deplete oxygen in the river and suffocate fish and other aquatic life as well as cloud the water with particles causing additional harm to river life, says SELC. 

Active Energy has 60 days under the law after SELC's notice to stop its discharges from its contaminated property into the Lumber River.

Source: SELC