It’s hard to put into words what the past week has brought to the greater Appalachian region. It’s estimated that 40 trillion gallons of water washed over Asheville and the surrounding Western North Carolina region from Hurricane Helene, resulting in the biggest natural catastrophic event this region – and possibly the entire nation – has seen.
At this moment in time, the estimated death toll climbs to over 200 people throughout the Southeast, while thousands have been without clean water and power for almost one whole week, with estimates of not returning for up to three or four weeks. Furthermore, the ability to get gas or food at any grocery store has grown harder each day as mountain citizens navigate the area in its post-apocalyptic state.
Many of us, including myself, chose to live in this sacred part of the country for its ease of living. The Southeast – Asheville specifically – holds a special and long-term bond with the Earth that supplies nutrient-dense soils, a balanced four seasons, and the lack of extreme weather. Blizzards, hurricanes, severe droughts, and tornadoes are foreign to the area, thanks to the protection of the 500 million year mountains and higher elevation. That, combined with its ease of access to major cities like Nashville, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and the Atlantic coast, has made it a top-tier spot for a comfortable and sustainable life.
The belief that a hurricane could ever touch this area was unthinkable. Asheville is located 300 miles from the coast, making it near impossible for a hurricane to cause irrefutable damage this far inland. Regardless of whether you think this was a result of the Earth’s cry from ongoing climate change or if you go down the rabbit hole of it being geoengineered to target 300 miles inland to strategically impact the Southeast citizens doesn’t really matter. The damage has been done. What matters now is getting people the essential resources they need to survive while also educating people the potential risks and problems that can continue to unwind in the weeks, months, and years to come.
North Carolina has become a major focus of lithium production because of its vast metal reserves. The state sits on the largest single deposit of hydrate lithium in North America.
What does lithium do? With the current administration’s push for “sustainability,” lithium is now at the top of the list for precious materials to support its goal of having 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030, producing 1.2 million electric vehicles annually. Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular battery storage option in the world, accounting for over 90% of the global grid market. Lithium batteries help power smart phones, laptops, e-cigarettes, wireless earbuds, power tools, electric bikes, pacemakers, electric toothbrushes, and more.
Last September, the North Carolina chemical company, Albemarle Corporation, received a boost from the U.S. Department of Defense to secure supply chains and domestic sources for critical minerals. What kind of critical minerals do you ask? Lithium, of course. Albemarle Corporation is the world’s largest lithium producer and this $90 million agreement will increase domestic production of lithium for the nation’s battery supply chain.
The mine was operating from the 1940s and closed down in the 1980s after the United States found cheaper mining opportunities in South America. Now, Kings Mountain lithium mine is projected to become operational as early as late 2026, becoming the biggest lithium mine in the United States just 35 miles west of Charlotte, NC.
Then there’s Piedmont Lithium. This is another company seeking out Western North Carolina’s sacred land to mine for this mineral. This mine was proposed in 2021 and would encompass 1,500 acres in northern Gaston County, hosting four open-pit mines, each 500 feet deep. This means that houses, farms, forests, and streams would have to be eradicated. Obviously, many of the residents of this area are in opposition, knowing it would destroy and toxify the soil, water, and atmosphere.
Piedmont also picked up a $600 million lithium processing plant site in eastern Tennessee. Located in Etowah, TN, it is projected to open in 2025 and process about 30,000 tons a year of lithium from mines in Canada and West Africa.
How are we going to “combat climate change” and “act upon sustainability” by ripping apart some of the most ancient mountain lands in the world to mine lithium? Displace families, species, and whole ecosystems in the name of “sustainability”?
The land in Western North Carolina and Tennessee is now completely washed away. Dozens of thousands of homes, businesses, and cars are irreversibly damaged or completely swept away from the unmerciful currents of the hurricane and floods. In Asheville specifically, less than 1% of all homes are covered by flood insurance. This sounds exactly like it is: that less than 1% of people suffering from flood damage will be able to receive a form of compensation from this catastrophic event that will now displace them and their lives for the foreseeable future.
What will people do? Well, the weeks and months following last year’s fires on Maui saw the island experience a “predatory land grab.” Lahaina residents were forced to sell their land due to the ongoing devastation of the land, homes, and businesses. Similar to the mass flooding of Western North Carolina, many of Maui’s residents and homeowners were underinsured with mortgages to pay on houses that would take several years to rebuild.
And instead of seeking comfort in hoping the land would eventually return to normalcy, these desperate Lahaina residents were forced into desperation. Investors swooped in to take over the land and excluded longtime residents from reconstruction plans. Others got priced out and neighborhoods gentrified or transformed. Sales of land around Lahaina nine months after the August 2023 fire exceeded the total amount sold in all of 2023. According to The Guardian, “as search and rescue teams painstakingly combed through the scorched ruins, traumatized survivors began receiving texts, voice messages, and letters from speculators and realtors offering to buy their burnt-out homes.”
This also happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Thankfully, some local advocates jump started the Lahaina Community Land Trust (LCLT), a grassroots initiative that boosted affordable housing and preserved the unique character of the historic town by disrupting the post-disaster market forces. This Community Land Trust (CLT) now acts as a long-term steward for affordable housing, green projects, cultural and civic spaces, and commercial property to be on the offensive against disaster capitalists. They are fighting to keep the Lahaina lands in the hands of native Lahaina people. LCLT was – and will continue to – raise enough capital funds to provide desperate survivors an alternative to developers and corporations offering “low but quick” monetary offers for devastated land.
“The community land trust model has been around for 100 years, gaining popularity in the United States among civil rights groups and Black farmers in the 1960s. Since then, around 300 have sprung up in towns, cities and Native communities. In Houston, arguably the country’s most ambitious community land trust to date was created after Hurricane Harvey in 2019 exacerbated the city’s affordable housing crisis that was mostly affecting low-income people of color,” as reported by The Guardian.
So what’s the point of all of this? In the time following tragic events that sweep whole communities off the face of the Earth, corporations will often find the ability to capitalize on the suffering. With dozens of thousands of people without flood insurance and the need to still pay mortgages, the desperation to take a small check from any of these mining companies may come knocking.
The map below shows the location of Albemarle lithium mine and the two locations of Piedmont’s lithium mines, colored orange. You’ll also see the location of Asheville, NC and Chimney Rock, NC, colored blue, nestled in the middle of these lithium sites.
Nothing is certain, but it certainly would be a convenient time for these mining companies and federal agencies to come in and offer a cash value to all of us to leave the area so they can further bulldoze these sacred lands for increased profit.
Of course, I hope I’m wrong. I’ve witnessed the Western North Carolina community come together to help one another in this time of crisis. However, I don’t believe that these mining companies and corporations have good intentions for Asheville and its surrounding region. To them, we are just half a million people who are replaceable. If they secured any more of the land here, it would bring in trillions more dollars every single year. The land is already cleared and washed away, an easy way to immediately start mining.
Thinking of the possible outcomes and informing those of us most at risk for this happening is important. Just as we’re working together as a community to help hand out fresh drinking water, essential supplies, and keeping the faith and good spirit alive, we also have to band together to prevent any more devastation. No one should have to lose their home and belongings and then be forced to sell their property to a greedy corporation for a fraction of its worth to survive.
Right now, Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust still stands strong for our direct city and county. Many of the other badly-hit counties and small mountain towns remain unprotected. The best thing we can do is to love thy neighbor and educate everyone in these small mountain towns to hold onto that land with all their might and to not give into desperation to these companies.
As we navigate Asheville and Western North Carolina’s future, donating to local disaster relief organizations is the most effective way to make a difference in rebuilding our sacred lands.
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