We've been blindsided! The Interim Director for DEQ-Mining, Toby Vinson, and Wake Stone reached a closed-door Settlement Agreement that reverses the previous Director's Mining Permit Denial for RDU Quarry and includes:

• $500,000 dollars of tax-payers dollars to pay Wake Stone's attorney fees
• Withdraw appeal of the overturn of the RDU Quarry Mining Permit Denial
• Remove the hold on the Mining Permit issued on September 9 

HOWEVER, Attorney General Josh Stein must approve the Settlement to be effective. That is where YOU can help. 

What You Can Do

Please contact Attorney General Josh Stein and Governor Roy Cooper and ask the following of the Attorney General: 

• Do NOT approve the Settlement Agreement between an Interim Director in DEQ and Wake Stone for a new mining pit on the Odd Fellows Tract
• Do NOT approve the first private rock mine on public lands in NC with devastating damage to Umstead State Park
• Do NOT Settle
• Do NOT agree to use half of a million dollars of tax payers money to pay for a private mining company to destroy our public lands
• Fight for the Mining Permit Denial
• Fight for Sunset Clause to be restored
• Fight for our public lands to be protected!
• Fight for William B. Umstead State Park!

Contact Information

Attorney General Josh Stein: Fill out the form at bottom. Leave voice message at central phone number: 919-716-6400 (option 5).

Governor Roy Cooper: Email or call Governor Roy Cooper's office: 919-814-2000, Option 5

Additional Information

We, the public, were not the only ones blindsided by this closed door 'deal' by an Interim DEQ-Mining Director and a private mining company.  NC State Parks was also blindsided. 

The Press Statement released November 13 by Reid Wilson, Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources states:

Sent: Monday, November 13, 2023 6:33:00 PM

Subject: Sec. Wilson Statement on Wake Stone

In response to the DEQ announcement (below), Secretary Reid Wilson made this statement (which will be shared with reporters covering the story):

“On behalf of North Carolina's state parks, the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources strongly opposes the judge’s order to issue the permit and the settlement between the Department of Environmental Quality and Wake Stone Corporation that may allow a second quarry adjacent to William Umstead State Park. The Department of Environmental Quality did not consult with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources before signing the agreement.

Unquestionably, a second quarry would damage two units of the state parks system, Umstead State Park and the East Coast Greenway State Trail, which runs through the park. For decades to come, a new quarry bordering the park would bring more blasting noise, more air pollution, more water pollution, more truck traffic, harm to wildlife, and a degraded experience for the roughly one million visitors to the park each year.”