Sand is pumped for a Bogue Banks beach re-nourishment project earlier this year. A new state fund and special sales taxes could help pay for future sand projects. Photo: Carteret County Shore Protection Office RALEIGH – Although there’s not a dime in it so far, the state has a new…
Search Results for: Kirk Ross
GOP Blasts Cooper’s Veto of House Bill 56
Gov. Roy Cooper tours Pender County’s water treatment plant on July 31. Photo: Cooper’s Medium post RALEIGH – Calling it “cynical legislation,” Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday vetoed House Bill 56, the environmental omnibus passed last month that appropriates only local funding for GenX testing, filtration and research, changes stormwater…
New Faces Join State Environmental Boards
Coastal Resources Commission members, from left, Larry Baldwin, Neal Andrew, Phil Norris, Russell Rhodes Jr. and Renee Cahoon meet in 2016. The board and other state environmental panels recently welcomed new members. File photo: Mark Hibbs RALEIGH – Mitch Gillespie, a former legislator who is now a senior adviser to…
Bag Ban Repeal, Topsail Dune Rule Advance
RALEIGH – Omnibus legislation that includes several controversial environmental provisions is a step closer to a final vote in the state Senate. Wednesday morning the Senate’s Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee approved its version of House Bill 56, an environmental amendments bill that runs roughly 15 pages. The…
House, Senate Plans Differ on DEQ Cuts
…Quality is one of seven regional offices across the state. Photo: DEQ The Senate plan, approved earlier this month, eliminates DEQ’s Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service, which helps businesses with waste reduction and recycling programs, as well as the department’s environmental education program. It also cuts key positions…
Oysters, Aquaculture, Gear Cleanup Funded
A crew places oyster reef base material, limestone marl riprap Wednesday at the site of a new oyster sanctuary under construction in Pamlico Sound. Photo: Mark Hibbs RALEIGH — The Senate budget approved Thursday includes several provisions related to recent efforts to expand the state’s oyster and aquaculture programs. The…
Senate Plan Targets DEQ Jobs, Wind Projects
This story has been updated. RALEIGH — The elimination of 45 positions at the Department of Environmental Quality and a moratorium on wind-energy projects through 2020 are among items raising concerns among environmental groups following the release Tuesday of the Senate’s two-year budget blueprint. The wind-energy moratorium could be a…
Wind Energy, Regulatory Bills Find Support
RALEIGH – A House committee gave a tentative nod to new changes in proposed wind energy legislation, while both chambers worked through dozens of bills in an attempt to beat an end-of-week deadline. The turbines at the Amazon Wind Farm reached full commercial operation earlier this year. Photo: Paul Copleman,…
Bag Ban Repeal Among Bills on Fast Track
Update: House Bill 434 passed the Senate on Monday, including the provision repealing ban on plastic bags on the Outer Banks, in time for the crossover deadline. RALEIGH – Facing a key deadline later this week, legislators last week began a full-on push to move several bills affecting the coastal…
Troubled Rivers: Can Farm Buyouts Help?
RALEIGH — The long-troubled Neuse and the Cape Fear rivers are in the headlines again, joining nine others in the advocacy group American Rivers’ annual list of the nation’s most endangered systems. The listing of the two North Carolina rivers is mainly, according to the report, because of threats from…
Cape Fear Pollution Fix: Call It a ‘Swamp?’
WILMINGTON — The stretch of the Cape Fear River from Navassa to Snow’s Cut, the part fronted by downtown Wilmington and the state port here, is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the term “swamp water.” The part of the Cape Fear River…
Bills to Cut Streams, Shoals Regulations
The Senate and House are finalizing another set of regulatory bills including a large array of provisions that have passed one or both chambers before. Among the dozens of changes throughout the state’s regulatory framework, the bills contain controversial coastal and water quality provisions. The House is expected to take…