New Hanover County Commissioners could continue discussions next month over incentives for Charlotte-based National Gypsum's potential reopening of a plant in Wilmington.

In the meantime, local representatives and those who oppose the possible plant reopening here have spoken out about environmental concerns.

The N.C. Department of Environment Quality (NCDEQ) has committed to sending a representative from the agency to speak to county officials about National Gypsum, the company's permit and other issues, the county confirmed this week. That's something commissioners asked for at their Feb. 19 meeting.

An official with National Gypsum, a drywall manufacturing company, said in February that the company is looking at its sites in Wilmington and Tampa, Florida, as possible facilities to reopen to add production in the Southeastern U.S.

County commissioners could pick up the National Gypsum discussion again in April, according to county spokeswoman Jessica Loeper.

Leaders with New Hanover County and the city of Wilmington had plans to offer economic development incentives to locate into Wilmington. But public environmental concerns stalled discussions on those incentives. Both the city and the county opted to postpone future discussion of the incentives for at least 30 days from those meetings.

City and county leaders were considering offering an incentives package of up to $230,000 from the city and $350,000 from the county over five years. If the company should reopen its Wilmington facility, officials have said it would bring 51 new jobs, which have an average salary of $57,000, and $25 million in capital improvements.

Following the decision to halt discussions, Nancy Spurlock, spokeswoman for National Gypsum Co., said Wilmington was still in the running. The National Gypsum site in Wilmington, located on Sunnydale Drive, ceased operating in January 2009. 

Several individuals have spoken against the company, and a small grassroots organization has formed against the company's location in Wilmington.
 
At the February county commissioners meeting, several officials shared concerns about the proposed incentives, including state Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover), who recently held a press conference in downtown Wilmington on Monday to take up the talk about the issue and express why she doesn’t feel the company should reopen its facility here.

“We have got to change our trajectory here. We are in a very fragile place,” Butler said by phone Monday. She cited the issues the community has already faced with GenX, an unregulated chemical that has been found in the region’s drinking water and linked to manufacturing operations from the Chemours Co.'s facility in Fayetteville.

“It is my attempt to bring this to the citizens' attention so that the demand for our economic development [efforts] pivot and do things that are sustainable and don’t layer on another exposure to our citizens," she added.

A group will be meeting in Wilmington tonight to talk more about the environmental concerns, at a session scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Hannah Block Community Arts Center, 120 S. Second St.

Robert Stewart, an organizer of the meeting, said in an email, "As you know, the County Commissioners/City Council are considering giving substantial tax $$ Incentives to National Gypsum to re-start their plant on Sunnydale Dr. Wilmington ... Both elected bodies seem to be playing CYA catch up on these concerns about which they should have aware and sensitive to before they were prepared to vote for these incentives."

Tyler Newman, president and CEO of Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, shared a view on the topic framed on the city's comprehensive planning process.
 
“Our region needs a wide economic base to continue to thrive. The city of Wilmington just finished a years-long community-wide comprehensive planning process to set a path for our community,” he said in an email. That plan, he said, provides “clear guidance on three different facets” of the discussion, including industrial development, targeted industries and air quality.