RALEIGH — As the N.C.General Assembly passes the halfway mark in the session, environmental organizations are tracking several key bills, including new legislation on stormwater rules, permitting and wind energy and old bills on hydraulic fracking and inlet dredging. House Bill 480 – the legislature’s latest version of permitting “reform”…
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Opposition Brewing to Injection Wells
RALEIGH — A resolution up for a vote next week by the Dare County commissioners and a position paper from a regional water resources group in Onslow County are the latest indications of the fast-growing coastal opposition to using coastal aquifers to eliminate wastewater from hydraulic fracking. The position paper…
McCrory’s Budget Slashes Conservation Funds
…cost was $3 million,” Rogers said. A report to the N.C. General Assembly last May detailed $62 million in unmet local needs, including repair and renovation projects at 28 failing wastewater treatment plants. Rogers said he was glad to hear Pope say the governor is open to feedback. He’ll try…
State House to Go Slow on Injection Wells
…volatile organic compounds, brine that is about eight times saltier than sea water and high levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials, including radium-226 and radium-228, which are known human carcinogens. Radium-226 has a half-life of 1,600 years and is linked to bone, liver and breast cancers. Other chemicals in fracking…
House Committee Reworks Commissions Bill
…heated up after its surprise introduction in late January, drawing fire on editorial pages across the state for the wholesale replacement of key boards and commissions. Bob Emory, the chairman of the CRC, was among those who expressed deep concern about the consequences of the bill. Speaking in Chapel Hill…
New Legislature, Governor Get to Work
McElraft, Cleveland Named to Chair Key House Committees Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, and Rep George Cleveland, R-Onslow, received key appropriations appointments last week after House Speaker Thom Tillis named his budget chairs for the new legislative session. McElraft will serve as co-chair of the House Natural and Economic Resources Committee…
Slow Down: Merger Idea Needs More Study
RALEIGH — A report that was mandated by the N.C. General Assembly on merging the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries and Wildlife Resources Commission recommends that legislator take more time to study the idea, citing the complexity of the task, the agencies’ different missions and a lack of public consensus….
Creosote Plant Now Superfund Site
NAVASSA — You can still see wild rice, the remnants of long gone plantations, around the marsh lands where the Brunswick River and Sturgeon Creek meet up and flow into the Cape Fear in Brunswick County. What’s not as easy to see is the extensive amount of toxic residue buried…
Will She or Won’t She?
…to get involved in the fight, but acknowledges he’s outgunned by the groups pushing for a veto. “We’re in no danger of winning the paper battle,” he said. Should Perdue veto any one of the bills, she has until August 12 to call the legislature back into session. An override…
Sea-Level Rise Debate Brings Curtain Down
…organizations around the world and by several countries and other states. McElraft’s criticism of the report was not the harshest. “What we’re calling science is not science,” Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, said before launching into a sharp criticism of the 2010 report. “I think we need a lot more information…
Clean Water Fund Gets Whacked Again
…by 2016. Omega Protein wins another season A last-minute addition by Sen. Don East , R-Surry, the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee chair, to a bill that bans factory fishing of menhaden off the N.C. coast, grants Virginia-based Omega Protein another season in the state’s waters. Sen. Bill Rabon,…
A Failing Grade on the Environment
…11 voting members will have ties to the oil and gas industries. It also prevents local governments from passing ordinances that prevent or restrict fracking Offshore Drilling: The bill encourages the drilling for oil and natural gas off the N.C. coast and requires the state to enter into compacts with…