President Biden’s final rule defining “waters of the United States” restores federal protections for streams, lakes, ponds and millions of acres of wetlands in North Carolina.
News & Features
Cedar Street update to include stormwater management
Beaufort’s Cedar Street, formerly the town’s U.S. 70 corridor, is to undergo major updates that include stormwater management and resurfacing.
Nags Head drops multifamily use from commercial district
Commissioners, responding to nearby property owners’ objections to a planned workforce housing project, voted 4-1 last week to remove multifamily dwellings as a permissible use in the general commercial zoning district.
As development looms, effort on to protect Corolla horses
An initiative announced in November aims to acquire and preserve habitat for the wild Banker horses of the Currituck Outer Banks one-third acre at a time.
Most of 2014 regional bike, pedestrian plan still just a plan
One advocate calls the mostly unrealized Croatan Regional Bicycle and Trails Plan “a critical step” in creating a true multimodal transportation system.
Live Christmas tree disposal options offered along coast
Residents can donate their trees to Fort Macon State Park and Surfrider Bogue Banks for dune stabilization or drop it off at a county convenience site.
Inlet channel maintenance made simpler: Go with the flow
The Corps of Engineers now says it has authority to follow the deepest natural water, or best water, in the Rollinson Channel Navigation Project linking Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.
Pender revises zoning ‘to properly regulate’ solar farms
Commissioners amended zoning text Dec. 5, less than a week after a California-based solar company filed a lawsuit against the county for turning down its request for a permit.
1898 Oregon Inlet Life-Saving Station must go, but where?
The N.C. Aquariums system, which owns the historic structure at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, is looking to move and preserve it.
Coastal restoration firms show off living shoreline tech
Companies in shoreline stabilization and restoration recently presented their techniques and materials for a statewide steering committee of scientists, federal and state agencies, and nonprofits.
GenX study finds Chemours-specific chemicals in residents
Though GenX was not found in the blood samples of 1,020 residents in Wilmington, Fayetteville and Pittsboro who participated in the 2020-2021 GenX exposure study, three PFAS unique to the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility were in the blood of nearly all.
State delays decision on Enviva Ahoskie air quality permit
Division of Air Quality officials are considering public input and feedback from the Secretaries’ Environmental Justice and Equity Board before taking final action on the draft permit.
Officials celebrate funding of Sugarloaf Island restoration
The legislature appropriated $2 million to restore Morehead City’s Sugarloaf Island, a barrier protecting waterfront attractions from coastal storms that has been rapidly eroding for decades.
Draft wind energy areas off NC coast may be downsized
The recently announced draft offshore wind energy areas, including two off the northern North Carolina coast, may be scaled back before being finalized early next year.
Water clarity standard to save seagrass an ongoing process
Water quality degradation from nutrients and sediments reduce light penetration needed for seagrass survival and is a threat to coastal fisheries.
Process of updating inlet hazard area rules to be continued
A rule approved in September deleted an exception that would allow homes of up to 2,000 square feet to be built in areas where the new erosion rate-based setbacks would prevent construction of new houses.
