PCS wants to move into some new digs.

• Position: Eastern

PCS Phosphate's clock is ticking, but only time will tell if the countdown by one of Eastern North Carolina's largest employers is cause for alarm. Ross Smith, environmental manager of PCS Phosphate, says the company needs federal permission--soon--to mine about 4,000 acres of wetlands near Aurora. "We don't have that much reserve remaining in the currently permitted boundaries. So if this thing were prolonged for another matter of years, we'd have no choice but to shut down."

Already, the permitting process has taken seven years. If the feds give it a green light, PCS, part of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, would spend $4.8 billion to mine the wetlands over the permit's 37-year span, Smith says. In strict economic terms, that's clearly preferable to closing the world's biggest integrated phosphate mine and processing complex, throwing 1,000 people out of work and shrinking a $60 million annual payroll to zero.

But potential economic gains and losses must be weighed against the damage mining could cause the environmentally sensitive wetlands, which soak up runoff and pollution near the Pamlico River and several large coastal creeks...