The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s water quality committee is to hold a special virtual meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday to consider proposed amendments intended to clarify existing rules for the Division of Mitigation Services.
The Environmental Management Commission oversees and adopts rules for several divisions of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, including the divisions of Air Quality, Land Resources, Waste Management and Water Resources.
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If the committee approves the draft language, the changes are to go before the entire commission at its next meeting sometime in September.
The Division of Mitigation Services is a DEQ initiative that “restores and protects wetlands and waterways for future generations while offsetting unavoidable environmental impacts from development projects,” the website states.
As part of the rules review process, which is required by statute every 10 years, staff recommend minor technical and administrative changes to “improve clarity, consistency, and update references to URLs and rules in other subchapters. This should make understanding the rules easier for program customers who elect to use the DMS (in-lieu fee) programs, without imposing new costs, rates, or substantive requirements,” documents state.
The in-lieu fee is the division’s appropriate stream or wetland rate multiplied by the total number of stream or wetland compensatory credits.
Meeting information, including the link to join, agenda and supporting documents are on the commission website. An in-person listening station will be set up in the Archdale Building in Raleigh for those unable to view the water quality committee meeting online.
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