Homes in Rodanthe (try not to fall into the ocean)
Recent projects and current events
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day, fellow critters!
Last week, I booted up Visual Studio Code for the first time in a minute to update my portfolio site. At some point during my graduate school career, I decided it would be a good idea to build my portfolio site from the ground up. Turns out, coding a whole website takes a lot of time. Who would have guessed?
I’m planning on releasing one last podcast episode of 2023. In the meantime, here’s a quick news round-up.
Swamp Boy in the news
My profile of Durham County’s First Food Security Coordinator, Mary Oxendine, appeared in INDY Week and The Assembly. I just received an update from Mary on her farm campus project (mentioned in the article): The Durham Board of County Commissioners approved the Durham Cooperative Extension’s request to begin the process of purchasing 127 acres for Farm Campus.
If you’ve been listening to the Swamp Boy Pod for a while, you’ll recognize Mary Oxendine from past episodes:
My coverage of the new National Park Service coastal erosion mitigation program aired on WUNC 91.5. The National Park Service of Eastern North Carolina demolished two homes on the beaches of Rodanthe. Both homes were purchased most recently in the last two years and have sat eastward of the dune and vegetation line for at least a decade. The NPS bought these homes to demolish them before the homeowners let them fall into the ocean.
Listen to my coverage of environmental issues in West Badin on NPR’s Here & Now. I just checked the Department of Environmental Quality’s website, and they have not released any updates on Alcoa’s new wastewater and stormwater permit.
Elsewhere in the swamp…
Texas-owned mega gas station Buc-ee’s is planning a 75,000-square-foot store in Mebane. There’s a quote from one of my favorite audio dramas, Alice Isn’t Dead, that goes, “Every place is built like every place.” The main character, Keisha, says this about the homogenous crop of gas stations and chain restaurants that clog every exit along our highways. There are some exceptions to this rule: Wawa is, for the most part, a New Jersey staple. Bojangles seldom crosses the 100th meridian. And the best Buc’ee’s are all in East Texas.
The indigenous-led advocacy group 7 Directions of Service is organizing against the development and will be present at tonight’s Mebane Planning Board Meeting.
The EPA withdrew its consent for Chemours to ship GenX to its Cape Fear facility. New information provided by Chemours revealed that they overestimated many times over the amount of GenX the facility could process in a year. This decision comes after a UN panel alleged that DuPont—the parent company of Chemours—"violated the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people living in the Lower Cape Fear River Basin,” according to NC Newline’s Lisa Sorg.
The UN panel said, “DuPont and Chemours facilities have significantly contributed to the widespread contamination of the planet with toxic, synthetic PFAS chemicals that will not easily degrade.” Boo.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality will require Chemours to expand private well sampling for PFAS contamination in regions affected by their pollution. The test results will determine eligibility for “free, alternate water supplies.”
Thank you for reading,
Zack