Our Fight Against the Lillington Highland Paving Plant

UPDATE: According to recent inspection reports, the plant manager claims to have received no complaints about odors leaving the plant premises. This discrepancy suggests a failure in the complaint handling and follow-up process by DEQ. To address this issue effectively, we recommend reaching out not only to DEQ but also to a list of key contacts, including Mr. Keith, the plant manager. More info.

We are a group of residents of Harnett County, NC. opposing the US401N Highland Paving Plant. We didn’t have the public hearing opportunity that the residents of Angier, NC had in their fight against Highland Paving. The land Highland Paving has purchased had been rezoned Industrial in 1988 – 32 years ago before any hospitals, county buildings, or residences were built. This land is also very environmentally sensitive which includes wetlands and borders Neill’s Creek which feeds into the Cape Fear river less than a mile away.

We have recently found out, thanks to the article published by The Daily Record, that we were lied to by Commissioner Lewis Weatherspoon during the Meet the Commissioners meeting on October 7th. He point blank told our group that he and the other commissioners didn’t know about Highland Paving’s intentions until they had received the site plan on June 2nd. We now have proof that Weatherspoon and county officials knew since May, if not sooner. 

There was absolutely no consideration given for the health of the residents, hospital patients, clinics, and nearby nursing home. We are also EXTREMELY concerned over the plant’s proximity to Neill’s Creek, Cape Fear River, and protected wetlands.

The HW 401 N. Highland Paving Asphalt Plant is being built a short 1.2 miles from the other asphalt plant on 210, Johnson’s Brothers plant. The Environmental Impact of both plants emitting pollutants were NOT considered in the study done by the NC Department of Air Quality to approve Highland Paving’s asphalt plant.

The current proposed asphalt plant is small, but NOTHING prevents them from expanding! Their Air Quality Permit expires in 2029 and all they have to do is notify DEQ. LEW WEATHERSPOON HELPED THIS HAPPEN!

Commissioner Weatherspoon and other county officials proactively colluded to find this property for the asphalt plant while Highland Paving hid their name behind other company names to not raise any red flags.

Follow the Money!

Why do you think they need that plant there so badly? HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS! There are a HUGE number of housing developments in our area going up. If you look at who has donated to Lew Weatherspoon’s campaign you will notice a LARGE number of developers have donated to him. These developers NEED asphalt for roads being built in the developments. The asphalt needs to arrive at a certain temperature. If the asphalt has to travel by truck longer distances, the asphalt will cool down in the process.

Our Goals

• To try to stop the Highland Paving Asphalt Plant from moving forward and operating at this location.
• If the above is not achieved, we want to prevent the Highland Paving Asphalt Plant from expanding (capacity limits, manufacturing limits, production levels, operation hours/days/times, etc.) of their currently submitted plan of operation at this location.
• To try to change the zoning on the 130 adjoining acres of land to something other than Industrial.
• To try to change the language/law within the Harnett County Ordinances, to create more restrictions on all industrial entities within our county, that omit or produce hazardous substances expelled into the ground, air and water, due to their manufacturing processes.

UPDATE: Under advice of our lawyer, we decided to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice, as of December 13th. If we let the Judge dismiss the case it would be with prejudice, meaning we would not be able to re-open the case. We did not lose our case, we are simply taking a step back and gathering evidence that could help us win our case. We have one year to re-open according to NC rules of civil procedure. Our attorney has not given up. He will continue to work our case and is seeking an expert to help. We are not giving up! We plan to use our attorney to help us change the zoning of some of these properties and re-write the zoning ordinances in our county so, this won’t happen again. It takes time and patience to make these changes. Thank you to everyone that has donated and supported us in this fight!