Save the Cape

Save the Cape is a NC 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation, established to protect the lower Cape Fear region from heavy industrial development. Imminent is a megaport in the town of Southport, 23 miles downriver from the Port of Wilmington (NC). The cost to build the megaport is currently estimated at $4.4 billion and the environmental degradation resulting from this project would be irrevocable. The State of NC has already spent $30 million on the land, another $10 million to justify that purchase and yet another $10 million servicing the debt. Competing ports are light years ahead in roads, rail and deep water. Even with generous tax credits, the lowest handling rates on the Eastern Seaboard and excellent service, our ports are only capturing 20% of all imports and exports originating from the State of NC! Build it and they will come. That's the lopsided thinking of our Governor who helped to authorize the purchase of the land when she was Lt. Governor and sat on the Council of State. Currently, the State gets a free ride on dredging to 42'. But, to accommodate the largest vessels in the world, the river must be dredged to 50'. Once the river is dredged 45' or deeper, the State willl begin to share in those costs: 40% for initial dredging (estimated at $1.2 billion) and 60% for annual maintenance dredging, estimated at $12 million. The port - the North Carolina International Terminal (NCIT) would be modelled after APM in Virginia. A fully automated, state of the art facility, that employs 47 people (plus longshoremen). There is no economic justification for this $4.4 billion noose around the necks of taxpayers in the State of NC. The Cape Fear River is neither wide nor deep. We are not near major population centers, which successful ports require. Our ports can't capture business from their home state and bleed millions every year as a result. Building the NCIT will not change geography or reality. Join us. Become a fan on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Save-the-Cape/102463186489992