Public outrage greeted the state Environmental Management Commission Monday in Wilmington for its latency in adopting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance health standards, for including only three compounds in the proposed standards, and for appeasing the industries that make the chemicals.
Warming oceans intensified hurricanes’ strength: Studies
Human-caused climate change has pumped up peak, pre-landfall Atlantic hurricane wind speeds by an average of 13 to 18 mph in recent years, according to the authors of two companion research papers published Wednesday.
Wildlife officials push back on straw bales for sand fencing
Wildlife Resources Commission officials are calling for thorough research on how wheat straw bales might affect oceanfront habitat before the state allows them to be used as an alternative to sand fencing.
Superintendent’s warning to coastal commission rings true
Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac had told the Coastal Resources Commission last week that Rodanthe homes were apt to fall this weekend. It took fewer than 48 hours for the first to collapse.
CRC adopts permanent rule to protect Jockey’s Ridge
The Coastal Resources Commission was unanimous in its approval that re-designates Jockey’s Ridge as a unique geologic feature area of environmental concern to again protect the towering dune system in Dare County.
Topsail Island towns team to eradicate harmful beach vitex
Topsail Island towns are banding together in an attempt to reduce the presence of the invasive plant that chokes out native vegetation on oceanfront dunes.
Rules eased as red-cockaded woodpeckers’ status improves
Wildlife officials say the recent downlisting from endangered to threatened is a success story, but opponents say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s reclassification is premature.
Officials are in ‘No hurry to sell’ 87 acres of Navassa site
Residents in the Brunswick County town have been speaking out against using for warehousing the 87 acres that went out for bid a year ago at the former wood treatment site.
Brunswick County to explore creating a stormwater utility
A month after an unnamed storm dumped more than a dozen inches of rain and caused flooding in much of the southeastern part of the state, Brunswick County commissioners are looking to better balance stormwater management and development.
State sets temporary allowable PFAS limits in groundwater
The North Carolina Division of Water Resources released interim maximum allowable concentrations to help define cleanup targets for groundwater contaminated with high levels of the chemical compounds.
Pender, Onslow towns seek moratorium on shellfish leases
North Topsail Beach, Surf City, and Topsail Beach and their counties, Onslow and Pender, are asking state lawmakers to put in place a moratorium on new shellfish leases in their waterways.
Brunswick County faces ‘undue burden’ amid funding shift
As western North Carolina grapples with unprecedented immediate needs after Helene, Brunswick County here on the coast is pleading for assistance to cover both its current and long-term storm recovery costs.
Gators’ more frequent appearances make splash along coast
Whether they’re country alligators or city alligators, wildlife biologists say the reptiles just want to be left alone, but the loss of habitat means interactions are more and more likely.
Groups call for federal protection of diamondback terrapins
Nonprofits have petitioned the federal fisheries agency to list as endangered the diamondback terrapin, an estuarine creature frequently drowned in abandoned crab pots.
Surf City’s 50-year sand plan calls for 22 million cubic yards
The town’s federal coastal storm risk management project – more than 20 years in the making – will put a total of 21.8 million cubic yards of sand on the beach over the course of a half-century.
Van der Vaart: Likely carcinogen does not equal carcinogen
Chief Administrative Law Judge and Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings Dr. Donald van der Vaart revoked permit limits of 1,4-dioxane for municipal wastewater treatment plants that discharge a compound the EPA calls a likely human carcinogen into the drinking water sources of tens of thousands.
