Dear Wake County Commissioners,
I live in Cary, NC near Umstead Park’s entrance at the Black Creek Greenway. Our family has benefited due to our close proximity to the undisturbed forest that surrounds RDU airport.
Umstead forest has protected us from exposure to high temperatures during the summer, when non-forested areas such as the proposed quarry suffer from heat island effects.
Umstead forest has provided us with access to biking, running, and hiking trails that we use to reclaim our sanity by being within the natural areas that the forest provides.
Umstead forest keeps our air clean and healthy, and gives us a layer of protection from the emissions generated by the aircraft operations at RDU Airport.
From what we have learned recently, RDU Airport Authority has been pushing for the building of a new quarry at Odd Fellows Tract at Old Reedy Creek Road. This raises concerns for some of us because construction of the new quarry in the area could lead to the forested land becoming impervious to water runoff. Converting the forest to the impervious hard rock quarry will contribute to the existing flooding hazards on Crabtree Creek. The proposed quarry will bring additional water downstream to the Crabtree Mall area, which already suffers from frequent catastrophic flooding. The expanded quarry would also be detrimental to the existing recreational uses within the Umstead State Park itself.
Adding additional truck traffic to quarry and transport the rock materials from the proposed expanded quarry will harm the air quality, and coupled with the toxic emissions from automobile and truck traffic along I-40, and the airport traffic at RDU, will exacerbate unhealthy air and cause increased incidence of asthma, dementia, cardiopulmonary disease, lung cancer and many other health conditions. Please do not allow additional removal of the existing forest buffer that currently protects us from these harmful cumulative impacts due to increased PM2.5 exposures.
It was my understanding that eminent domain was used to take land from private citizens to expand the airport property. If that land is no longer to be used for the public good for the purpose of expanding the airport, then in keeping with the public good, the intact forest buffer around the airport should be retained, and providing opportunities for citizens of the areas surrounding RDU airport to recreate in a safe, unpolluted forested area.
I recently gave a presentation to the Zero Waste Group in Raleigh and Cary, and want to share it with you as well. It has some information about how the harmful effects of PM2.5 pollution are exacerbated by climate change, and how we can all do more to reduce these impacts.
Link to my Zero Energy Waste Presentation.
Thank you for setting a goal of 100% Renewable energy at your meeting today. Please also consider a goal of increasing forest cover in Wake County and put a stop to the rock quarry expansion that is proposed by the RDU Airport Authority. You could help RDU Authority make much wiser decisions in their short and long term plans by encouraging them to use their natural resources to combat climate change. Save #RDUForest, and invest in solar panels and electric buses for the Airport instead of a rock quarry!
Sincerely,
Liz Adams
