June 22, 2007 - With grant funding from the state now backing their play, the committee steering development of a plan that would allow building construction amid endangered woodpecker habitat in Boiling Spring Lakes is close to selecting a consultant to perform the work.
Having met once prior to the state last month awarding $106,000 to fund a citywide habitat conservation plan, or HCP, the steering committee is ahead in the process of not only compiling needed demographics of the city’s population of red-cockaded woodpeckers but also acquiring an expert to draft the plan, which is essentially a blueprint to mitigate the loss, or “incidental take,” of longleaf pines — the birds’ preferred foraging habitat.
Representatives of the Brunswick County Association of Realtors have already searched for and narrowed down a pool of potential candidates, entertaining earlier this year the possibility that the state would not award the grant. Of those bidding to draft the plan, and assume responsibility for administering a subsequent “incidental take” permit, Realtors recommend Wilmington-based Dial Cordy and Associates Inc. By Jonathan Spiers
Read Lakes consultant
May 18, 2007 - While awaiting word on whether the city will get grant money to fund it, stakeholders are laying the groundwork for a plan that would allow endangered woodpeckers and building construction to coexist in Boiling Spring Lakes.
Commissioners have given field officers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the green light to access private properties in the city to better determine the existence and status of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers.
Such research would pinpoint which parcels require mitigation of the birds’ habitat before development could occur — the basis of a citywide habitat conservation plan, or HCP, which could receive funding via state grants applied for by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission on the city’s behalf. By Jonathan Spiers

"We want this to wake up the community and renew awareness of the Green Swamp landfill," said Steve Smith, chairman of the Friends of the Green Swamp during the rally at the Columbus County Courthouse. Smith also wanted the rally to remind residents that the attempt by Riegel Ridge LLC to place a regional solid waste landfill in the Green Swamp along the Brunswick-Columbus County line was a community issue, not just a Lake Waccamaw issue.

The Waccamaw River is the freshwater source for the Intracoastal Waterway, which provides drinking water for Myrtle Beach at the 10th Avenue North Extension Surface Water Treatment Plant.

"This is absolutely the wrong place to put a landfill," N.C. Rep. Dewey Hill, D-Columbus, told the crowd, which mostly included residents of Columbus, Brunswick and Pender counties. He promised he would, "work his little butt off to make sure this doesn't happen."

Representatives for the company couldn't be reached late Friday, but officials have said concerns about the landfill contaminating groundwater are unfounded .

The N.C. legislature voted for a one-year moratorium on landfills last year, a ban that expires in August. By Charles Slate

April 6, 2007 - No recycling center and landfill will be built in northern Brunswick County, Sims Hugo Neu executives said in a statement Thursday morning. The announcement, in which the international recycler said it had decided to "leave Navassa," was taken by many as a sign that years of controversy in Southeastern North Carolina were over.
Sims Hugo Neu President Robert Kelman said in a statement that the decision was a tough and disappointing one to make.
Project opponents hailed it as a victory for their efforts. Government officials pledged to help Navassa attract other investment.
State Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, said he would convene a meeting of Navassa officials and state economic development officials, perhaps as soon as the middle of next week.
Gov. Mike Easley, who lives in Brunswick County, said the episode pointed to "a lingering need for economic development in many communities like Navassa that are working hard to bring jobs to their citizens." Personal incomes there are half the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By Mark Schreiner

April 5, 2007 - State legislators representing Brunswick County have introduced legislation that would effectively kill the proposed 350-foot auto fluff landfill in northern Brunswick County proposed by Sims Hugo Neu, and they have gotten further along in the process than previous bills.
Representatives Bonner Stiller and Dewey Hill have introduced a bill that would de-annex property the town of Navassa "satellite annexed" for the purpose of building the landfill. The bill would return the zoning to the county, Stiller said this week that he has also introduced a second bill, just in case, that would return the zoning authority to the county, while the property would remain technically in Navassa's town limits. "In case the other one doesn't pass, that gives them an option," Stiller said.
Sen. R.C. Soles has also introduced a bill similar to Stiller's second bill. It would not de-annex the land but would give the county zoning control until 2010. Soles said he is not interested in de-annexing. "When you start taking part of a city away, it sets a bad precedent," he said.
Asked about the 2010 deadline, he said that's enough time for the threat of the landfill to go away, and if the state commission set up to study mega-landfills has its way, no such "mega-landfills" will be allowed in North Carolina, especially in the coastal area. "I'd prefer going that way, rather than a specific local bill, but I'm going to do whatever we need to do to stop the Hugo Neu landfill." By Sarah Shew Wilson