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Editorial Note: CCV received this public statement from UNCW Marine Biologist, Dr. Larry Cahoon on October 16. The public is urged to make comments, whether in the form of public letters addressed to CCV, or by responding directly to the commissioners themselves as named below.
The Wilmington Star-News published a story on July 27, 2007, about water pollution at a boat ramp and county park on the Northeast Cape Fear River in Castle Hayne, based on a study by UNCW researchers Dr. Larry Cahoon, Dr. Mike Mallin, and graduate student Renee Harrington. New Hanover County Commissioners Bill Caster, Bill Kopp, and Bobby Greer reacted to the article by ordering the County Manager Bruce Shell and Planning Director Chris O’Keefe to summon Cahoon and Mallin to separate meetings to complain that they were “blindsided” by the article, and subsequently ordered Shell and O’Keefe to cancel UNC Wilmington’s Tidal Creeks Program contract in retaliation. The UNCW-New Hanover County Tidal Creeks Program began in 1993 and won a national award from the American Planning Association in 2000 as an example of productive cooperation between academic researchers and local government. The Program monitors water quality monthly in New Hanover County’s tidal creeks and produces annual reports on its findings. It has supported numerous students and generated many peer-reviewed scientific papers. Commissioners Caster, Kopp and Greer, however, don’t like “bad news,” such as the story in the Star-News. Cahoon, Mallin, and Harrington first published their report about pollution at the Castle Hayne sites in the 2005-2006 Tidal Creeks Program Annual Report, in February, 2007, and delivered it to the County Commissioners and County staff then. We have no evidence that any of the Commissioners or their paid staff read the chapter about the pollution problem at Castle Hayne until the Star-News article came out in July. The study that revealed the pollution problem at Castle Hayne was not funded by the Tidal Creeks Program, but by grants to Dr. Cahoon and Dr. Mallin from UNC Sea Grant and the UNC Water Resources Research Institute, which get their money from federal and state sources. Both grants have “right to publish” clauses and specific expectations that results must be shared with the public that pays for them through taxes. Commissioners Caster, Kopp, and Greer decided to punish UNCW, Dr. Cahoon and Dr. Mallin for publishing these results. Dr. Mallin directs the UNCW Tidal Creeks Program, but Dr. Cahoon has no affiliation with the Program and Harrington has graduated and left. So Caster, Kopp, and Greer tried to “shoot the messenger” by canceling the UNCW Tidal Creeks Program contract. County Manager Bruce Shell threatened Dr. Mallin in August with cancellation of the UNCW Tidal Creeks Program, but then agreed to hold back if changes in “communication practices” changed. Shell and County Planning Director Chris O’Keefe then met with Dr. Cahoon to discuss more “proactive” communication, but they did not admit that the Tidal Creeks Program contract with UNCW was to be cancelled anyway until after these meetings. In the mean time, they left Dr. Mallin with the impression that everything was fine, and made it clear that the quality of the work he supervised was excellent. But all that changed shortly. On orders from the three commissioners, county staff picked a private contractor to take over the Tidal Creeks Program sampling work from UNCW without public or competitive bidding, and, we hear, for more money than UNCW was paid for its work. So now the taxpayers may get to pay more for an uncertain quality of work by an inexperienced vendor that may not be allowed by Commissioners Caster, Kopp, and Greer to share its findings with the public paying for them, and certainly won’t use them to support students or publish peer-reviewed scientific papers. Frankly, I doubt these three politicians would have risked this kind of trouble if there weren’t some larger goal. Note that peer-reviewed scientific papers generated from the results of the UNCW Tidal Creeks Program have been used to support the Environmental Management Commission’s proposals for more effective storm water regulations to protect the public’s waters, as well as in other environmental management issues. I suspect that certain “development interests” have persuaded these commissioners to seize an excuse to take UNCW’s scientists out of the loop and weaken our ability to generate these important findings. It won’t work.
If you are troubled by this story, please contact the three New Hanover County Commissioners (email addresses and phone numbers below) and ask them:
1) Why didn’t the Commissioners or their paid staff read the UNCW Tidal Creeks Program Report when they got it in early 2007? Or did they? 2) Why were they upset at the Wilmington Star-News article in July, 2007 about suspected water pollution at a public boat ramp and county park? Was New Hanover County responsible for the pollution? 3) Why did they cancel the contract with UNC Wilmington for its work in the Tidal Creeks Program, when the study identifying pollution at Castle Hayne was funded by other sources? 4) Why has Bill Caster complained to UNCW Chancellor DePaolo about Dr. Cahoon’s public comments about water quality issues? 5) Have they committed to spending more taxpayers’ dollars for a private contractor to do what UNCW did for less money? 6) Why don’t they want the public to know about water quality problems in New Hanover County?
—Lawrence B. Cahoon Professor of Marine Science
Contact information: Bill Caster: bcaster@nhcgov.com Phone: (910) 452-1282 Bill Kopp: bkopp@nhcgov.com Phone: (910) 431-7120 Cell Bobby Greer: bgreer@nhcgov.com Phone: (910) 686-1703 (H) (910) 619-7879 (Cell)
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UNCW Marine Scientist Issues Statement Calling for Public Response New Hanover Commissioners Punish Scientists, Privatize Pollution |