DATE: November 17, 2008

Carolinas Cement's new quarry plan will preserve more than 310 acres of site's highest quality wetlands

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Carolinas Cement has developed a new quarry plan to ensure that more than 310 acres of high-quality wetlands bordering the Northeast Cape Fear River and Island Creek will be preserved and not impacted by its proposed cement plant project in the Castle Hayne area of Wilmington, N.C. Carolinas Cement is a subsidiary of Titan America, LLC.

"This new quarry plan is consistent with Carolinas Cement's corporate values of environmental stewardship," said Jay Willis, Carolinas Cement's Environmental Manager. "The plan allows us to preserve and protect the most sensitive wetlands that include tidal cypress-gum swamp, and still maintain a footprint that is most conducive to a cement manufacturing operation."

To preserve these 310+ acres, Carolinas Cement has acquired the rights to property off Holly Shelter Road, across from the proposed plant site and about a mile from the Northeast Cape Fear River. The additional land consists mainly of pine plantations where trees have been planted and harvested over a long period of time, and any existing wetlands have already been highly impacted.

Carolinas Cement has submitted a revised preferred quarry alternative to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency coordinating the wetlands permitting process necessary to move the project forward. The additional property Carolinas Cement has acquired provides the land needed to develop alternatives with less environmental impact, as called for in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with the Corps of Engineers. The new property is zoned heavy industrial.

"Because so much of our newly acquired property has already been disturbed or altered, the net result of the mitigation process will be the re-establishment of a higher quality wetland system," said Willis. "Our goal has always been to act proactively and to minimize the impact on Island Creek and the River, and we think this new land plan does just that."

Titan America LLC is headquartered in Norfolk, Va. and is one of the premier heavy building materials producers in the eastern United States. Titan America operations include cement plants, ready-mixed concrete plants, concrete block plants, quarries, import and rail terminals and fly ash beneficiation facilities. For more information about Carolinas Cement, visit Carolinas Cement.

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