The future now looks brighter for a badly deteriorating structure that, despite its condition, remains an iconic symbol of mainland Hyde County’s heritage and a former gathering place for special events.

An event was held Feb. 13 and billed as the Mattamuskeet Lodge kickoff, a way to celebrate the $6.5 million in the 2024 North Carolina budget earmarked for the restoration of Lake Mattamuskeet Lodge.

The building was closed in 2000 when damage to its foundation was discovered during renovations. The foundation has subsequently been stabilized, and in 2020 the roof was repaired using many of the original clay terra cotta tiles.

After not being used for 24 years though, the interior is in need of restoration and there is landscaping and exterior work that also has to be addressed before the building can be used again.

The 2024 funding is an important first step and the path to get the money into the budget was difficult, Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, told an audience of around 200 gathered at the celebration.

“It’s been a long, hard road with a lot of ups and downs and some obstacles we never thought we would overcome,” Hanig said.

The total cost for renovating the lodge, according to a report issued by the Mattamuskeet Lodge Society, will be $14.4 million. The society is a nonprofit established to manage the lodge after work is completed.

The speaker’s podium was shared by the North Carolina Wildlife Commission Executive Director Cameron Ingram, Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, and Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Craven. Hyde County Manager County Manager Kris Noble and County Commission Chair Earl Pugh delivered personal remarks.

“We’ll be focused on this great land that surrounds us and the history that has been such a great part of all of our lives,” Noble said. “The lodge will once again be a center for events. We will once again host weddings. We will have proms and class reunions and other private events once again. As we breathe life back into the lodge, the lodge will also bring life back into our communities.”

Noble had earlier outlined for Coastal Review what she hoped the lodge will represent once renovations are completed and it reopens.

“One of the ultimate goals is to promote economic development. Mainland Hyde needs something like this, that will drive that economy,” she said.

Pugh, the county chair, described the lodge’s role in Hyde County during his remarks.

“Some of my memories here include proms, weddings, anniversaries, Ducks Unlimited banquets,” he said.

The lodge for many wildlife management students, including those from East Carolina University, was part of their college experience.

“I was in this building in 1992 as an ECU student in natural resource management,” Ingram said. “I didn’t know that I was going to eventually become a wildlife officer. But I knew that I wanted to serve public concern conservation in the state. So I was studying that here.”

Failed endeavor

Mattamuskeet Lodge was not originally a hunting lodge. It housed, when completed in 1915, what was purportedly the largest steam-powered pumping station in the world, capable of pumping a million gallons of water per minute. Its purpose was to drain Lake Mattamuskeet and turn the lakebed into fertile farmland. What is now an observation tower was originally the smokestack for the coal fires that fueled the steam.

In 1909, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Drainage Act, “an act to promote the public health, convenience and welfare by leveeing, ditching and draining the wet, swamp and overflowed lands of the state.”

The measure created drainage districts throughout North Carolina, the most extensive of them was Lake Mattamuskeet. The rights to the lakebed were sold to the Southern Land Reclamation Co. for $100,000, with the proceeds going the state Board of Education.

The plan for the lake was based on a Dutch model, Farmer and Mechanic reported in November of 1914.

“In Holland the Haarlem Lake was drained by the government. This lake was not so large as Mattamuskeet and yet today 16,000 people live in this old lakebed and it is one of the most fertile and prosperous districts in Holland,” reporter R.R. Cotton wrote.

By 1918 the lake was pumped dry and the land was being sold to farmers.

The land was as fertile as advertised, but the cost of keeping the lakebed dry was becoming ever more expensive. By 1924 North Carolina Farms, the company formed to manage the land, was in receivership and all pumping activity stopped.

In 1926, with new investment, a second attempt was made to turn Lake Mattamuskeet into farmland. That too failed.

“Factory Farm Doomed by Nature, Millions Wasted,” the Associated Press reported in April 1931.

“Dixie’s greatest ‘factory farm’ apparently has failed,” according to the report. “Six years and $6,000,000 spent in an effort to reclaim for agriculture the 48,000 acre bed of Lake Mattamuskeet seems to have come to naught.”

As early as the mid-1920s, there were reports that the federal government was interested in Lake Mattamuskeet as a wildlife reserve, but the drainage district was still owned by private investors.

By the 1930s with the lake once again filled, word came that another plan to drain the lake was in the works. W.O. Saunders, publisher of the Elizabeth City Independent didn’t hold back in his assessment.

“Another Damphool Plan to Drain and Colonize Lake Mattamuskeet Acres,” the Independent’s front-page headline screamed.

In the article Saunders explained why draining the lake was a foolish plan.

“It is not practical as Lake Mattamuskeet is below sea level which would necessitate these pumps going continuously to prevent the farm crops from being inundated and destroyed,” he wrote.

According to the 1933 report, the pumps had failed in August 1932 and crops were lost.

Saunders goes on to note that Lake Mattmuskeet is a “Natural feeding ground for migratory water(fowl) and game fish, and proposes it be turned over to the Federal Government.”

He reported that the federal government wished to purchase the lake and turn it over to the U.S. Biological Survey, which was combined in 1940 with the Bureau of Fisheries to form the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By 1935, the Henderson Daily Dispatch was reporting that the old pumping station was being remodeled as a hotel and administration building.

The renovations took two years and, according to the website Living New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps was heavily involved in the work. CCC Co. 424 did much of the work, “with 17 to 23 year old ‘CCC boys’ working side by side with civilian contractors.”

Memories of migratory waterfowl

Sidney Britt, 88, was at the event. He owns a house on the lake now, but he lived in Raleigh when he first came to Lake Mattamuskeet as a boy.

“I was 10 years old. I was probably easy to impress,” he said. “You could stand in one spot and the horizon would just be dark with birds. It was just beautiful. And the sound. It was just beautiful.”

By the 1970s, though, hunting had dwindled as geese flight patterns had evidently changed. The Perquimans Weekly in a July 1973 article noted that, “Surprisingly, the total population of Canada geese in the Atlantic Flyway has increased at the same time that Mattamuskeet’s population has declined.”

In 1974 the Mattamuskeet Lodge was closed, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices were still in the building, which had become a gathering place for Hyde County events –high school proms, weddings and the like.

The Mattamuskeet U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office is now located on an adjacent property.

The lodge also included a dormitory for ECU students with 16 beds available.

“I was the lodge coordinator,” Annette Gibbs told Coastal Review at the celebration. “I had an office here, and I booked all parties and the people that came and stayed in the ECU wing. We had something going on almost every week.”

It all came to an end in 2000.

The building had been deteriorating for some time, and money finally became available for needed repairs. A close look at the foundations, however, revealed that the bricks holding the building up were disintegrating.

“We had the money (for renovations) and we were pulling out bricks and they found some that were down low would actually break off,” Gibbs said. “The problem was they used sand from the sound (to make the bricks). And there was salt in the sand and it had just disintegrated.”

The structural problems were repaired, but it used all the money that had been earmarked for the renovation. In 2020 the roof was replaced.

Structurally, the building is sound, but there is considerable interior work that has to be done. Many of the touches the Lodge created are still there — the balcony surrounding what could be a ballroom, rooms are still divided, but walking through the building, there can be no doubt the interior is an empty shell.

Plans for the structure

It may take years to completely renovate the building.

Legislators at the event explained that money allocated in a budget must be spent during that fiscal year. They were optimistic that once the project began, funding to complete the renovation would continue to be available.

Once renovations are completed, the Hyde County Extension Service will move their offices to the building.

“Hyde County’s cooperative extension will have their offices here in the lodge and they will provide the abundant programming and resources that they already provide,” Noble said during her remarks.

Related: Hyde County agency’s future home may be key to saving it

The Mattamuskeet Lodge Society will manage the facility when it opens and its planning documents call for extensive outreach to area schools for educational opportunities.

“The Lodge will offer educational programming through the MLS (Mattamuskeet Lodge Society), 4-H Youth Development Program, Family & Consumer Sciences, Agriculture Extension, NCWRC, and FWS,” the society notes in its Restoration Initiative document.

The lodge will also be available once again for special events and the Lodge Society will also manage a retail store on premises.

“It will all be focused on this great land that surrounds us and the history that has been such a great part of all of our lives,” Noble said.

Salary increases for state employees included in the recently adopted budget are expected to help narrow the gap of staff vacancies within the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

As of the first of this month, 256 out of 1,797 department positions were empty, holding the vacancy rate at just over 14%, according to DEQ Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs Sharon Martin.

Though that’s about a 5% decrease in the number of vacancies the department had around this same time a year ago, the department continues struggling to fill certain jobs where the pay is substantially more in the private sector.

The 2023 Appropriations Act that became law Oct. 3 includes state employee raises of 7% over two years and a laundry list of fee increases tacked on to permits and applications handled by DEQ’s various divisions.

Related: Budget strips certain powers from local governments

The legislative salary increase that is 4% the first year and 3% the second, fee hikes and money from the Labor Market Adjustment Fund of which more than $730,000 is included annually to recruit and retain critical staff positions “are helpful in beginning to address DEQ’s below market salaries,” Martin said in an email.

“However, we are still faced with the challenges of a highly competitive market, especially for engineers and environmental specialists,” she said. “DEQ continues to look for opportunities to address salary concerns and fill vacancies.”

DEQ’s vacancy rate is at 22% for engineers and environmental specialists.

Martin pointed out that the budget also includes 25 additional full-time positions, including one dozen jobs aimed at addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAS are chemical compounds used in a variety of consumer products because of their resistance to heat, water, oil and grease.

There are well over 10,000 PFAS. Researchers are just scratching the surface on understanding how these chemicals, which are being released into the environment through the air, soil and drinking water sources, affect human health.

DEQ is monitoring PFAS in the Cape Fear River and other drinking water sources in the state, and the agency is working with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to test fish for PFAS to issue fish consumption advisories based on those test results.

The department also oversees the North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or NC RCCP, which received a $10 million budget allocation. 

NC RCCP aims to boost resilience efforts in the state’s 20 coastal counties and encourages those who live and work along the coast to participate in finding solutions and prioritizing projects designed to help their communities bounce back from flooding and storms. The program is a product of the state’s 2020 Climate Risk Assessment & Resilience Plan, which was the result of Executive Order 80 signed by Gov. Roy Cooper in October 2018.

Also included in the budget is $2 billion in investments for water and wastewater infrastructure throughout the state.

Fee increases range anywhere from around $200 to $400, and more in some cases.

Martin said more than 15 years have passed since the last fee increases had been implemented for many programs within the department.

The budget became law without Cooper’s signature. The governor, who is wrapping up his final term in office, called the budget “bad,” saying that, among other things, some provisions within it violate the constitution.

A provision of the law stipulates that DEQ cannot refuse to accept or issue an application for a permit, authorization, or certification if the applicant has not first received those from any other state or federal agencies “except to the extent required by federal or State law.”

The provision also restricts local governments’ authority by mandating that they cannot deny a draft erosion and sedimentation control plan if an applicant has yet to receive other environmental permits, “aside from a permit required for stormwater discharges from construction sites.”

Local governments must grant conditional approval on a draft plan “upon the applicant’s compliance with federal and State water quality laws, regulations, and rules.

Legislators also repealed a previous law that eliminated a fast-track permitting option for stormwater permits.

The fast-tracking process will exempt applicants who meet certain requirements from going through a technical review.

“DEQ will allocate the resources necessary to address required actions under the budget – including rulemaking,” Martin said. “On express permitting, the rulemaking requirement will allow for a public process as we codify the procedures governing existing express permitting.”

Other provisions in the Act prohibit the department, the state’s Utilities Commission and Environmental Management Commission, and the governor from requiring electric public utilities to participate in programs that offset carbon dioxide emissions.

DEQ and other state agencies, including the Department of Transportation, cannot adopt or enforce emissions control standards on new motor vehicles.

Despite the last-ditch efforts of environmental groups and local governments, the North Carolina General Assembly approved a long-awaited state budget that includes provisions that strip counties and municipalities of certain governing powers.

The Republican-controlled legislature last Friday passed a $30 billion budget, one that boosts Medicaid, bans local governments from regulating the use of plastics, grants millions in funding for living shorelines projects, and creates an animal-waste-to-fertilizer conversion cost-share program.

Shortly after legislature’s vote Friday morning, Gov. Roy Cooper announced that he will not sign the 2023 Appropriations Bill, but will allow it to become law.

“Make no mistake, overall, this is a bad budget that seriously shortchanges our schools, prioritizes power grabs, keeps shady backroom deals secret and blatantly violates the constitution, and many of its provisions will face legal action,” Cooper said.

In the hours leading up to the General Assembly’s vote, environmental groups and local governments scrambled to get the word out about provisions in the then-proposed budget that takes away some rule-making authority from counties and municipalities.

Cape Fear River Watch circulated an email citing a section in the bill that prohibits counties and cities from adopting rules, regulations, ordinances, or resolutions that restrict, tax, or charge fees on so-called “auxiliary containers.” This includes single-use plastic bags, cups, bottles and other types of food packaging.

Asheville officials have been debating banning single-use plastic bags and, in Durham, environmentalists were pushing for that city to require retailers tack on a 10-cent fee for each thin, plastic bag given out to customers in restaurants, grocery stores and shops.

Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch’s water quality programs manager, told Coastal Review in a telephone interview Monday that the organization is “obviously unhappy” with the legislature’s decision.

“If local governments want to pass sustainability policies, it’s unfortunate that the state is coming in and stepping over them and saying, ‘No, you can’t do this in your own county,’” he said. “They should have the ability to pass policies that they think are going to be beneficial to their community’s health and their community’s environment.”

Plastics make up a significant amount of the litter collected through various cleanup efforts the organization hosts in Wilmington and New Hanover County.

The bill does specify that counties may regulate the use of auxiliary containers on county-owned and county-maintained property.

“That’s good that that’s in there, but that is tiny compared to what we’re actually seeing in the field,” Clark said. “The vast majority of litter that I see in the environment comes from private industries. The plastic bags that I’m finding, or the plastic water bottles or the pieces of Styrofoam that I see, those aren’t coming from the government sectors.”

The ban on regulating single-use plastics would have broad effects, he said, because plastics break down into microplastics, which are being found in streams, rivers and in the deep recesses of oceans throughout the world.

Dare County housing provision

The appropriations bill also specifically targets how Dare County municipalities govern affordable housing projects.

Dare County has dedicated $9 million, and the state has allocated $35 million, to address what officials there call a housing crisis for essential workers – from teachers and law enforcement officers to restaurant cooks and waitstaff – earning low to moderate incomes.

Three towns in Dare County, Manteo, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, have rejected proposed affordable housing projects because of local zoning laws and concerns about proposed housing project locations and providing sewer service.

In July, Dare County officials returned to Manteo with a second request for the town to extend sewer service to 46 apartments that would be built just outside town limits and require about a little more than 11,800 gallons per day of service, Manteo Town Manager Melissa Dickerson said.

A provision in the appropriations bill mandates towns within a 1-mile radius of newly constructed affordable housing must supply utilities if that town has sufficient capacity to do so.

The rule also would exempt new construction of affordable housing from municipal and zoning regulations, which include public hearings and input, setbacks and height limits.

“That’s the big concern that comes to the municipalities when you think about how intentional our zoning is, you know, we don’t allow buildings taller than our fire department’s ability to fight a fire and if zoning isn’t applied then how do we ensure that those buildings aren’t taller than our ability to handle life safety issues?” Dickerson said.

Manteo commissioners at their meeting last week unanimously gave Dickerson the green light to draft a resolution opposing the provision. During that meeting, members of the board and residents called the provision “dirty politics,” “underhanded,” and questioned its legality.

“Obviously, it was kind of late, and I think now we’re at a point where we’re going to have to look at how to manage this on the back end,” Dickerson said.

The board’s next meeting is Oct. 4.

“I feel pretty certain that we’ll come up with a plan at that point,” Dickerson said.

Gambling expansion dropped

The General Assembly’s vote Friday ended months of gridlock over a proposal to expand Medicaid with the condition that the budget also include legalizing more casinos on and off tribal lands and authorizing thousands of video lottery terminals across the state.

That stipulation was dropped less than two days before the House voted last Thursday when Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore announced an agreement had been reached to keep Medicaid in and remove casinos from the budget.

Cooper called the decision to expand Medicaid, which will insure more than 600,000 North Carolinians, “a life-saving, monumental decision for our state.”

“However, we must recognize this irresponsible legislature’s decade of refusal to expand Medicaid, which has caused life and death situations for so many North Carolinians and threatened the very existence of numerous rural hospitals,” he said. “I will not allow people who are crying for help to wait any longer, so I am directing our Department of Health and Human Services to begin today the process for expanding Medicaid while allowing this budget to become law without my signature.”

Nature-based solutions

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has been provisioned $7.5 million to provide grants for the North Carolina Coastal Federation for stormwater management, living shorelines and marine debris removal.

“These funds support innovative work by the Coastal Federation that allows us to advance the use of nature-based solutions that protect water quality, reduce flooding and enhance fishery habitats. In addition, they will help to develop the first of its kind shellfish logistics hub that will support small businesses making a living off of our productive coastal waters,” Coastal Federation Executive Director Todd Miller told Coastal Review.   

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, will use $5 million of that for a Stormwater Retrofit Pilot Cost-Share Program. The nonprofit organization and DEQ are to work together to create guidelines to provide for upgrades and repairs to stormwater control measures.

The nonprofit has been provisioned $2 million to provide up to a 50% match for federal, state, or private funds for living shoreline projects in coastal counties. Residents must be able to demonstrate how their receiving these funds will benefit the public to be considered.

The organization’s Lost Fishery Gear Recovery Program has been allocated $500,000. The program takes place in late winter each year to remove debris from coastal waters employs area fishers and other private partners to remove debris from coastal waters. The funds also will go to the investigation, removal and disposal of abandoned and derelict vessels in state public trust waters in coastal counties.

There is a directed grant of $800,000 to the Coastal Federation for capital costs and equipment associated with an aquaculture hub project, as well.

Infrastructure funding

Several local governments and public entities have been allocated funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority was allocated $35 million. Of that, $18 million is to go to drinking water extensions to unserved communities in New Hanover County impacted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The remaining $17 million is for municipal consolidation and regionalization of water and sewer systems in New Hanover County impacted by PFAS.

Regarding the $18 million for unserved communities, a spokesperson said Monday that the public utility will work with state and local partners to determine where the water service extensions will be constructed. The remaining $17 million is for system consolidation. 

“CFPUA and Wrightsville Beach are currently reviewing the possibility of a consolidation, in which CFPUA would take ownership of water and sewer infrastructure in Wrightsville Beach. The terms of that consolidation are still being reviewed by both parties,” they said. “We are very grateful to our region’s legislative delegation for securing funding to benefit CFPUA’s customers and our community.”

Currituck County Manager Ike McRee told Coastal Review that the county appreciates the $16 million allocated for utility infrastructure. There is $6 million for the Mainland Water Treatment Plant project, and $10 million for the Moyock water or wastewater system.

“The appropriated funds will ensure water capacity for the county’s growing population.  The funds will also allow for the replacement of a wastewater treatment plant that is unable to meet discharge permit limits,” he said. “The new wastewater treatment plant will meet permit discharge limits and accommodate expected population growth and economic development in the county.”

Other provisions

Other notable provisions in the budget include a plan for animal waste, several million for water quality, stormwater management, resiliency and recovery efforts, and mitigation strategies.

A five-year statewide cost-share program to use technologies that convert sludge from animal waste, including hogs and cattle, into fertilizer has been established. The program would match dollar-for-dollar with farmers who own or operate animal waste lagoons.

DEQ is allocated $20 million for the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund, which provides grants to local governments, and $16.1 million for the Local Assistance for Stormwater Infrastructure Investments Fund to provide grants to improve or create infrastructure for controlling stormwater quantity and quality.

DEQ’s Division of Coastal Management will receive $10 million for the Resilient Coastal Communities Program to provide funding for the implementation or construction of planned, prioritized, and engineered resilience projects in the 20 coastal counties.

The Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Management is allocated $30 million for long-term recovery and mitigation grants, at least $5 million of which will go to transportation resiliency projects.

The division has $5 million for the Local Disaster Shelter Capacity Grant Program to fund upgrades for emergency shelters, and $5 million to conduct flood studies, risk assessment, and building mitigation strategies through the State Floodplain Mapping Program.

There is $3.3 million for detailed mapping and risk impact studies for 250 existing flood gauges to provide baseline information on those gauges for use in the Division’s Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is allocated $10 million for the Lake Mattamuskeet outfall canal, and $1 million to provide a grant to the nonprofit Nature Conservancy for a pilot project to protect and restore critically important peatlands in eastern North Carolina for the purpose of increasing community flood resilience, improving water quality and wildlife habitat, and reducing wildfire risk.

The North Carolina Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill will see $340,000 for the FerryMon program, and $320,000 for the ModMon program, both are water monitoring projects.

The Office of State Budget and Management has been allocated $2 million for the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association for the Coastal Resilient Roof Grant Pilot Program, $1 million to North Carolina Resource Conservation and Development Association for flood mitigation projects, and $755,000 to nonprofit United Way of Coastal Carolina Inc. to support the Pamlico County Disaster Recovery Coalition.

The Department of Insurance for the State Property Fire Insurance Fund will receive $20 million to help cover the budget gap from increases in expenditures related to recent natural disasters.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has been allocated $20 million for the Streamflow Rehabilitation Assistance Program, which provides grants to projects that help reduce flooding and restore streams across North Carolina.

Lined with charter boats, old homes, restaurants and retail stores, Morehead City’s downtown waterfront has long been its biggest attraction, and a stone’s throw across the water, Sugarloaf Island has long helped protect the economic center of town from the brunt of coastal storms.

But Sugarloaf, which was created when Harbor Channel was dredged decades ago and forms a barrier to the wider expanse of water just inside Bogue Banks and Beaufort Inlet, has been eroding rapidly for years and causing alarm about the loss of protection from severe storm damage and flooding.

Now, with a $2 million state appropriation, a team of professionals is setting out to combine the best shoreline stabilization methods for the island in a way that officials said will balance shoreline protection, public uses and natural resource conservation. While the city has yet to secure all the money to complete the project, officials said the restoration would be incremental with $2 million enough for the first phase.

“When the town cut was first dredged and Sugarloaf Island was built back in the ’30s, I believe it was, it gave Morehead City the economic opportunity of growth on the waterfront,” Mayor Jerry Jones explained Thursday during a press conference at the Ottis Landing Deck on Shepard Street. “And over the years in my lifetime I’ve seen at least 1,000 feet of Sugarloaf erode away. It used to extend as far west as 12th Street and now it’s about Ninth Street. We’ve lost about three blocks and that erosion is accelerating.”

The erosion leaves uprooted trees and vegetation and the currents and wave exposure carry sediments and nutrients and degrade water quality.

Also in attendance at the press conference were members of the city council, waterfront business owners and Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, and Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, who helped secure the funding in the state budget.

“We are so blessed here in Carteret County to have our marine sciences, who have — all of them — banded together with the Coastal Federation to find the right solution, environmentally friendly solution for what I call the buffer, or the speed bump, protecting this beautiful city of Morehead City,” McElraft said at the event Thursday.

She said the funding was available for storm mitigation and resiliency because the legislature had built up copious “rainy day money.” The state’s rainy day fund, a budget surplus savings reserve for lessening the effects of sharp economic downturns and disasters, is projected to be about $4.75 billion by the end of next year.

Sanderson said that looking at Sugarloaf Island from above, from 20,000 feet or 10,000 feet with a drone, the tiny island might not look very important. “It’s very small on the grand scale of things, if you look at that, compared to our coastline. But because of this strategic location, it is extremely important to downtown Morehead City,” Sanderson said.

He said the North Carolina General Assembly shares the town council’s and coastal conservation group’s desire to be good environmental stewards.

“I don’t want, 50 years from now, somebody standing on this dock, saying, ‘Didn’t there used to be an island out there?’ and ‘Yeah, it was but it started going away, and even though we had technology to do something about it, we just didn’t think it was that important.’ Well, it is important,” Sanderson said.

Robert Purifoy owns and operates Olympus Dive Center at 713 Shepard St., directly across from Sugarloaf. He told Coastal Review that he had seen water coming up through the floorboards of his business during coastal storms, and while the structure is on pilings, it is normally over dry land. He said the restoration was a critical project for the waterfront.

City officials, aquatic restoration company Sea & Shoreline, the nonprofit North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and Quible & Associates announced in July the start of the project to restore and protect the island using wave attenuators that disperse wave energy to reduce erosion and help rebuild the shoreline, seagrass plantings to stabilize sediment, create essential fish habitat and improve water quality, and a living shoreline to build salt marsh and upland vegetation.

The combination of methods should also address tree and shorebird habitat loss on the island and provide carbon sequestration benefits. Officials said ecotourism opportunities from increased beach area and improved water quality conditions were another expected benefit.

Brian Henry, director of Sea & Shoreline’s North and South Carolina offices, said the project was his idea for the Florida-based firm’s entry to the market here. He said the legislators supported the idea from the start.

“Without hesitation, they dove in very quickly and told us that this is very, very important, critical infrastructure for Morehead City and that they would see what they can do. A lot of things had to come together to get this money,” Henry said during the press conference.

He said the project is in the permitting phase with about another 35 to 40 days likely remaining.

“No questions or real objections at this point because we had a really good team on the front end that put all the work together from a technical perspective,” Henry said.

Coastal Federation scientist Dr. Lexia Weaver explained that the plan to use living shorelines was a natural, long-term shoreline-stabilization method.

“These living shorelines have proven time and time again to work significantly better, are more cost-effective, and they are incredibly more resilient to the effects of storms compared to the traditionally used sea walls that have hardened our shorelines and unfortunately have led to the reduction in our valuable salt marsh habitats and oysters, as well, in the process,” Weaver said.

She explained how the island protects the entire downtown area from the winds, waves, storm surge and other damaging effects of strong storms that have increased in intensity and frequency in the last few years.

“Unfortunately, the island has eroded due to these rising water levels and these strong storms,” Weaver said. “More than three whole city blocks of the island have been lost and it has exposed this waterfront to the direct effects of Mother Nature, and it continues to shrink in size. So, if nothing is done to protect this island, this waterfront is in trouble.”

The planned project components to be installed off the island’s shoreline will not impede navigation as they are to be placed in areas too shallow for vessels to navigate at high speed, according to information provided at the press conference. The breakwater will also be staggered to allow fishers to reach areas around them.

Nearly one-fifth of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s job positions are unfilled, leaving the agency responsible for administering regulations to protect water, air quality and the public’s health in a tight pinch that is not likely to loosen any time soon.

As of Oct. 25, 19.19% — 340 of 1,772 positions — in DEQ were vacant. That includes new, time-limited positions created to administer federal funding programs, according to information provided by a DEQ official.

DEQ’s staffing shortage is indicative of a broader issue in state government, where a number of departments are dealing with even steeper declines, putting the squeeze on state employees who are left to pick up the slack while typically making less than their professional counterparts in the private sector.

State government job vacancies were up more than 22% by the end of August.

The employee void is hitting every state government sector from public schools to safety to health and human services, all while billions of dollars are tucked away, unappropriated, in reserve accounts.

Unless legislators pump some of those funds to state agencies to ensure employees are paid at rates competitive with the private sector, unfilled job positions may rise, deepening a void that is already being felt by those the government is here to serve – you.

Tough competition

Compounding the loss of staff to higher-paying private sector jobs is the number of retirement-eligible staff within the department.

Since Jan. 1, 53 DEQ employees have retired.

Another 14% of the department’s employees are eligible for retirement, DEQ Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs Sharon Martin said in an email responding to questions from Coastal Review.

Within the next five years, 452 DEQ employees will be eligible for retirement.

“That is another reason we are so focused on addressing recruitment and retention issues,” Martin said in the email.

But that’s no easy task in what she describes as a highly competitive labor market “exacerbated by the inability to compete with market salaries.”

In fact, 36% of employees who have quit the department say salary was a factor in their decision to leave. More than half, 56%, of job offers were declined based on pay, according to information Martin provided.

“At DEQ’s current funding levels, many budgeted salaries are not competitive in the current job market, and engineers may be one of the clearest examples,” she said. “Among state agencies, DEQ has the second highest need for engineers behind only (Department of Transportation). However, market competition for engineers makes retention and recruitment particularly difficult.”

The average and median salary for a DEQ engineer 1 is about $15,000 less than the starting salary of a N.C. State University engineer graduate. An engineer II with more than 20 years’ experience is paid “roughly the equivalent” to a fresh-out-of-college N.C. State University engineer graduate.

Martin said DEQ is taking several steps to address staffing challenges, such as bumping up salaries for 88 employees whose pay was below the minimum under the state’s compensation system; targeting retention bonuses for engineer and environmental specialists; and evaluating a multistep, department-wide plan to narrow the public-private sector pay gap for staff who meet certain education and experience qualifications.

When real wages for state employees are not keeping up with the private sector and inflation, now at a 41-year high, that makes it incredibly difficult to retain “the kind of dedicated and talented and knowledgeable public servants that we rely upon to make modern life possible,” said Patrick McHugh, research manager at the N.C. Budget & Tax Center.

“I think for all that we’ve heard about the challenges that private sector employers are experiencing with hiring people there’s been incredibly little attention paid to a similar crisis that is playing out among public sector employees, specifically state employees,” he said.

McHugh said he first saw a disparity between the loss of state, federal and local government employees when he examined data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to that data, North Carolina has lost thousands of state employees, but that’s not the case in local or federal government sectors.

Questioning whether he was looking at erroneous data, McHugh cross-referenced the bureau’s numbers with that of the N.C. Office of State Human Resources. The results were the same.

Cracks revealed

McHugh said that one of the important things to keep in mind when talking about the current decline of state employees is the pandemic.

Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic that descended on America in early 2020 unveil weaknesses in government.

Years before the pandemic, DEQ was one of the chief targets of cuts and underfunding under the administration of Gov. Pat McCrory, who was governor from 2013 to 2017.

“Even though the proportional decrease for (DEQ) employees may not be as severe as some other parts of state government, the fact that they were already barely keeping things together because of years of cuts means that those kinds of losses can be even more severe than just the pure job numbers may indicate,” McHugh said.

It’s been five years since per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were thrust into the spotlight in North Carolina after the public was made aware that the man-made chemicals have been discharged into the Cape Fear River, the air and the ground for decades by DuPont spinoff, Chemours.

The PFAS crisis overlays other long-term issues like the impacts of climate change, further exacerbating limited staff resources.

“When those sorts of things happen, that pulls capacity away from other priorities within an institution like DEQ and when an institution like DEQ is already stretched to the limit that means that other important priorities like climate change, like other kinds of water protection, like other kinds of environmental protection, has to be sacrificed to address the new challenge that has just arisen,” McHugh said.

For DEQ staff, that means more work and longer hours.

“The result is longer lead times on some permitting processes and increased stress on our staff,” Martin said.

‘It hits us in so many different ways.’

Chris Gibson, president of the Wilmington civil engineering company TI Coastal Services Inc., noticed the squeeze on DEQ employees starting around the time Hurricane Florence hit the North Carolina coast in 2018.

The storm’s record-breaking storm surge topped 9 to 13 feet and produced catastrophic flooding in coastal and near-coastal inland counties.

“It’s progressively getting worse,” Gibson said of DEQ’s staffing shortages. “I say this and, if you’re going to quote me on anything, this is not the fault of staff. It’s the fact that there’s not enough staff for the amount of stuff that’s going on. We’ve been in a big rebuilding scenario on the coast and we’re still running with the same number of staff or less. We’ve had so much work that’s come up from them from the hurricanes. I mean, how many crosswalks has Jason Dail had to look at in the past five years?”

Dail is a field officer with DEQ’s Division of Coastal Management’s Wilmington Regional Office.

If the state asks for a 75-day extension to review a permit, it usually takes the full 75 days because “something more urgent gets into the works,” Gibson said.

“They rarely ask for an extension and then give you a permit three days later,” he said. “You can expect whatever the time they’ve asked for is the time before it’s going to get to you so it’s tough. It’s really tough. We’ve got from November 15 to the end of March or April, depending on exactly what the job is. If we’re trying to get a permit in September and all of a sudden there’s another 75 days put on it we’re thinking we’re 60 days ahead and now we’re 20 days behind. So, all of a sudden, I’m stuck with staffing needs or holes in my staffing or I’m overstaffed because things have to shift. It hits us in so many different ways.”

Dana Sargent, executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, expressed frustration about the staff shortages, saying environmental nonprofits are also overwhelmed, working with limited staffs and funding.

“I feel like there’s a lot of great people at DEQ doing great things,” she said. “I appreciate the recent work coming out of the DEQ on PFAS is strong and I’m very much grateful for that work. That being said, it’s their job. They absolutely need more money. There’s huge amounts of pollution in our state that we’re trying to protect our communities from and we’re doing all we can also on limited funding, also begging for grants and then having to prove to our grantors what we’re doing to spend our capital on that. So, it is frustrating to hear from a state agency that they just don’t have the funds while we’re scraping our funds to do this work.”

‘Stop the bleeding’

In late September, the N.C. Tax & Budget Center released a report highlighting the 2022-23 state budget’s failures to address the effects of inflation.

Though the state economy is robust, state spending relative to the economy is at an all-time low, according to the report.

Rather than use federal COVID-19 relief funding funneled to the state to address the pandemic crisis, state legislators essentially used those funds for things typically paid for by state dollars and diverted state funds to reserves.

And legislators did this without giving North Carolina residents the opportunity to voice their opinions, whether it be through committee hearings or through their elected representatives voting on the floor.

Instead, the House and Senate chambers released their conference report on the budget. Amendments cannot be made on a conference report and the report cannot be referred to a committee.

Legislators transferred $9.1 billion to more than a dozen reserve accounts in the Fiscal 2022-23 budget. Nearly $4.2 billion of those are unappropriated, including $1 billion placed in a newly created stabilization and inflation reserve.

“I think it’s important for the residents of North Carolina to know that we have billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines in a moment of ongoing crisis and that is just something that not enough conversation has been had about,” McHugh said. “Just stop the bleeding. The reality is we have the money in hand right now to give the kinds of raises that would at least insulate public servants from the effects of inflation. It will take years to rebuild the capacity in DEQ and other parts of state government that we have lost.”

Millions are marked for clean water, water infrastructure and shellfish habitat work along the coast in the state budget that Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law last week.

In addition to signing the 2022-23 spending plan that includes funding for flood resilience, oyster sanctuary, marine debris removal and drinking water and wastewater projects, Cooper signed dozens of bills in the last few weeks, including one that tweaks various environmental rules.

In a statement released July 11, Cooper said he signed a budget that includes “critical investments in education, economic development, transportation and the state workforce.”

Cooper noted that while the budget did not include Medicaid expansion, “the leadership in both the House and Senate now support it and both chambers have passed it. Negotiations are occurring now and we are closer than ever to agreement on Medicaid Expansion, therefore a veto of this budget would be counterproductive.”

In a joint statement, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger noted that the “responsible spending plan” had been passed by strong bipartisan margins in both chambers. The legislative leaders said they were “committed to working together to improve healthcare access and expand Medicaid, while providing the necessary safeguards to preserve the state’s fiscal strength. Active negotiations are occurring now toward that end.”

Biogas

In one of the more controversial environmental provisions in the budget, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services was appropriated from the general fund $1.5 million nonrecurring for the North Carolina Foundation for Soil and Water Conservation to provide cost-share assistance to swine farmers who want to install anaerobic digesters to produce biogas.

Align Renewable Natural Gas, a $500 million joint venture between Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods, has been developing a project in Sampson and Duplin counties to collect methane from the covered waste lagoons on a network of nearby hog farms and convert it to natural gas to be used to produce electricity.

Kemp Burdette, riverkeeper with Cape Fear River Watch, called the taxpayer funding of biogas disappointing, an environmental threat that compounds that of the lagoon and sprayfield system of swine waste management already in use in North Carolina.

“We are generally opposed to biogas, especially as it’s proposed in North Carolina right now — directed biogas,” he explained. Adding, science is pretty clear that just adding a second lagoon to these facilities, leaving an uncovered lagoon, which you then spray waste out of onto the landscape — exactly as things are done now — is going to just continue to harm water quality, and it’s going to continue to harm the communities around these facilities.

“To see the General Assembly basically decide that they’re going to give taxpayer funds to the biogas scheme that continues to threaten the environment and continues to threaten communities in North Carolina is pretty disappointing,” he said.

While the approved budget did have the $1.5 million cost-share program, it did not include the governor’s proposed $18 million swine floodplain buyout program, another frustrating point for environmental advocates.

The budget Cooper proposed in May included $18 million in nonrecurring funds that would have gone to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to purchase permanent conservation easements on properties currently used for swine production that are within the 100-year floodplain.

Sound Rivers, the nonprofit organization that guards the health of the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River Basins, also spoke out against the biogas provision. Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Jill Howell told Coastal Review the organization had been excited to see $18 million allocated for the voluntary swine buyout program in the governor’s proposed budget released back in May.

“It was disappointing to see that (buyout) program not funded at all in the final budget; this was a missed opportunity to provide funding to a voluntary program that removed the most vulnerable lagoons out of the way of future storms, prevented lagoon flooding, and pollution of our waterways while compensating CAFO operators,” she said, referring to concentrated animal feeding operations.

Inundation mapping by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Emergency Programs Division asserts that 32 of the 43 swine CAFOs closed through the voluntary buyout program between 1999 and 2007 would have likely flooded during Hurricane Matthew.

“Providing state funding for installation of a technology that fails to address existing environmental harms from the lagoon and sprayfield system, while also creating new problems associated with pipelines and biogas processing facilities is a huge problem,” she said.

Burdette was also disappointed that the buyout funds were not part of the budget.

“That’s taxpayer funds that could have been used to actually do something good, something to improve the environment and something to improve quality of life and communities around those facilities,” but that was taken out and instead, that something was put in that’s going to actually harm the environment and harm communities. “So kind of a double whammy there.”

There is still a large number of facilities in the floodplain that need to be removed or we’re going to see a repeat of what happened during hurricanes Matthew and Florence, he said.

Swine waste sprayfield systems used in North Carolina collect waste that is then stored untreated in open-air cesspools, and then the waste is sprayed onto the landscape.

“Biogas is going to do absolutely nothing to change that system. There are still going to be open-air cesspools full of untreated waste that are then sprayed onto the landscape,” he said. “The difference is that the industry is now going to cover an additional lagoon that is added. They’re going to take the methane off of that, they’re going to sell it and make more money while doing absolutely nothing to improve waste treatment.”

By covering the lagoons and not allowing off-gassing, nutrients in that waste are concentrating, Burdette said. “So we not only have this situation where you still are going to be spraying hog waste on to fields that then runs off into waterways, you’re actually now going to be spraying concentrated swine waste onto the landscape, which runs off into the nearby waterways.”

He said that from a water quality perspective, this is even worse, and from the greenhouse gas emissions perspectives, the industry claims that this is going to be some kind of dramatic reduction in methane.

“If they were not using that system — if these pigs were on open pasture if they were using waste treatment technology that (the industry) themselves, acknowledge works and promised to use 25 years ago — if they were doing that, then this this methane wouldn’t be an issue. What all they’re doing is making more money off of their waste stream while doing absolutely nothing to improve the environment or communities nearby,” he said.

Oyster sanctuaries, living shorelines among coastal projects

The budget includes $1 million nonrecurring through the state Department of Environmental Quality to the North Carolina Coastal Federation for oyster sanctuaries, contingent on the nonprofit securing $1 million in federal matching funds.

Coastal Federation Executive Director Todd Miller explained that this is money that will be used to leverage and match future federal grants to help complete the Sen. Jean Preston Oyster Sanctuary System in Pamlico Sound.

“The funds will be used to support any added needed capacity required by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries to handle a potently large but temporary surge in federal funding for building oyster reefs in the sound,” he said. “These projects involve design, permitting, purchasing and deployment of rock, and monitoring performance. Private contractors are hired to provide the rock and deploy it, while the Division is responsible for regulatory compliance, construction oversight and monitoring.”

The legislature authorized the sanctuary, named in honor of the late state Sen. Jean Preston, a Republican from Emerald Isle, in 2015 “to enhance shellfish habitat within the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and their tributaries to benefit fisheries, water quality, and the economy.”

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, has also been provided a $6.5 million nonrecurring directed grant through the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources for living shoreline work at Hammocks Beach State Park, Black Duck Island on the Oregon Inlet, Fort Macon State Park and North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. The funds were appropriated to the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund, that were then allocated to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Miller explained that this money will support the design, permitting, construction and monitoring of the four living shoreline projects at sites including lands managed by the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, Wildlife Resources Commission and private, educational nonprofits.

“The total amount of shorelines involved cover many thousands of linear feet. The federation will work with these agencies to hire contractors to carry out these projects,” he said.

Miller applauded the legislature for investing in nature-based strategies to deal with extreme weather and shoreline erosion.

“Living shorelines have proven to be extremely resilient to storms and are much more environmentally compatible than building bulkhead and other hard structures that cause loss of salt marshes. North Carolina is becoming a national leader with its investments in living shorelines for both public and private properties all over our coast,” he added.

Drinking water, wastewater funding

The budget includes money from the Clean Water and Drinking Water Reserve and State Fiscal Recovery Fund for a handful of coastal communities and public entities to for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, including $3.6 million for Elizabeth City, $1 million of which must be used for a new pump station on the Elizabeth City State University campus.

Also Jacksonville gets $3.25 million for water and wastewater infrastructure; the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority, which serves Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties, gets $23.5 million; and $10 million is going to the Onslow Water and Sewer Authority for the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Disaster response, storm mitigation

Carteret County is marked to receive $12 million through the state Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund, as a directed grant for marine debris removal and storm resiliency.

The county also may use up to $1.5 million remaining from grants awarded from the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund in grant years 2018 and 2019 to reimburse the county for expenditures related to a multiyear study on beach nourishment.

Shallow-draft inlet funding

The budget also changed the local cost-share requirements for grants from the state Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund. The fund is to provide the state’s share of the costs associated with dredging projects designed to keep shallow-draft navigation channels safely navigable. As a result, economic tier designations are no longer a factor in the cost-share requirements for dredging projects. Now, at least one nonstate dollar is required as match for every $3 from the fund, regardless of location.

Environmental rule changes

The House Bill 219 that Cooper signed July 7 features mainly technical changes to state environmental laws and related directives.

The bill includes setting a deadline for dozens of towns, counties and public utilities to submit completed infrastructure project requests to the state or lose federal funding they were authorized to receive in the 2021-22 state budget.

Money from the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan was allocated last year to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and directed to certain local governments and public utilities, many of which are on the coast, for water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure projects, but the budget approved in November 2021 included no deadline for the funding requests.

The new law sets June 3, 2023, as the deadline for directed infrastructure grant recipients to submit the completed requests. Otherwise, the money reverts to the state. Awards must be obligated by recipients no later than Dec. 31, 2024, and used no later than Dec. 31, 2026, or the money may revert to the federal government.

The allocations include $5 million for Bath, $2.8 million to Southport, $1.07 million for Topsail Beach, $100,000 to Winton, $30 million to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, $200,000 to Elizabeth City, $20 million to Jacksonville, $4 million to Surf City, $6 million to Wallace, and New Bern has been allocated funds for two projects, $230,000 and $75,000.

Cammie Bellamy, assistant public information officer with Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, explained to Coastal Review that the authority submitted its request for the $30 million for capital projects in February of this year and the project was approved.

“We are currently designing the infrastructure,” Bellamy said.

The authority board voted to use the $30 million for the Northern Regional Pump Stations and Force Mains project.

“This project will increase sewer conveyance capacity in fast-growing areas of northern New Hanover County, including Greenview Ranches, Sidbury Road, and Holly Shelter Road,” Bellamy said.

Phase A of the project will increase capacity at CFPUA’s wastewater Pump Station 155 from 0.42 million gallons per day, or MGD, to 2.1 million gallons per day and construct 6 miles of sewer force main. Phase B includes construction of a new 5.4 MGD pump station on North Kerr Avenue and 3 miles of sewer force main. CFPUA is funding an additional $2.8 million for a total project cost of $32.8 million.

Also regarding water quality, the law gives DEQ authority to limit wastewater discharge into waters with naturally occurring low dissolved oxygen levels, and the department now has more flexibility to use State Capital and Infrastructure Funds to remove stream debris.

The budget approved in November allowed the money to be used for targeted river basin debris-removal projects. The new law adds “other flood mitigation strategies prioritized through the Flood Resiliency Blueprint.” Also, stream debris removal projects that had been exempt from requirements for stormwater or water quality permits are no longer exempt.

Expedited permitting review

NCDEQ officials are to study approaches to expedite permit issuance under the express permit and certification review program established in 2008 and the fast-track permitting for the stormwater management systems program effective Jan. 1, 2017.

Officials are then to report its findings, including any recommendations for legislative action to improve permitting efficiencies under the programs, to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources no later than Dec. 31.

The express permit and certification review program applies to permits, approvals, or certifications for the erosion and sedimentation control program, the coastal management program and the water quality programs, including water quality certifications and stormwater management.

Public notice changes

House Bill 219 also makes changes for public notice requirements for hearings for Coastal Area Management Act land use plans and mine permit modifications.

The CAMA public notice requirements for land use plan hearings must now follow public notice rules in place for local governments.

Previously, CAMA public hearing notices had to be published at least once no less than 30 days before a hearing. Local government hearing notices must be published no less than 10 days before a hearing date and no more than 25 days.

Now CAMA notice requirements for land use plan or amendment hearings must follow the same schedule and, instead of a county newspaper, the notices may be published in a general circulation paper for the area. Additionally, local governments can post the proposed plan or amendment at a designated county or local government office, instead of in the county courthouse as previously required.

For changes to mine permits, applicants are now only required to notify landowners within 1,000 feet of land the permit holder is asking to add to a permit. Previously, the permit holder was required to notify all landowners within 1,000 feet of existing boundaries. Also, an applicant, permittee or other affected person may contest a decision by NCDEQ to deny, suspend, modify or revoke a permit by filing a contested case within 30 days of the decision.

Updated July 11: Gov. Roy Cooper signed the budget bill Monday.

The legislature’s proposed $27.9 billion budget approved Friday features provisions for addressing contamination of drinking water by synthetic chemical compounds.

Much of the funding to address pre- and polyfluorinated substances, or PFAS, often called emerging compounds, is in the form of grants that funnel federal infrastructure and recovery act dollars.

The North Carolina General Assembly voted 82-25 Friday to give final approval to the measure and sent it to the governor as it wrapped up the 2021-22 session. Despite bipartisan — veto-proof — support, a lot of folks were unhappy with the process and the results.

Rather than funding significant staff additions at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality as Gov. Roy Cooper proposed in his $27.8 billion proposal rolled out in May, the legislature’s budget makes nearly $50 million available through grants from state revolving funds for water and wastewater projects to address PFAS. Most of the grants would include federal dollars from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed last year along with matching state funds.

Cooper had not indicated whether he would sign the bill at the time this report was published.

Cooper’s budget included $2.5 million recurring and $483,000 nonrecurring funding for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to address the compounds that have been found in numerous public drinking water supplies and private wells in eastern North Carolina. The governor’s plan would pay 19 full-time employees for work on emerging compounds, such as permitting, technical support and groundwater testing.

Like Cooper’s proposal, the legislature’s plan includes $483,000 in nonrecurring money for DEQ to address PFAS, but scales down recurring funds to $841,000.

The recurring money would go to pay for three new positions, an environmental chemist and two hydrogeologists, and make two time-limited lab positions permanent in the Division of Water Resources. The recurring funds also would go for four new positions in Division of Waste Management, an environmental chemist and three hydrogeologists, to address emerging compounds.

The nonrecurring funds in the legislative plan would go to set up agreements to outsource PFAS testing.

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent, whose organization sued Chemours and DEQ to stop PFAS pollution, leading to the consent order under which the company now operates, said that outsourcing PFAS testing adds unnecessary steps and red tape without doing anything to protect the public.

“The DEQ needs to duplicate before they can regulate,” Sargent said of any outsourced test results. “We were pushing to get that funding, but here we are again, with funding going elsewhere instead of the only regulatory agency on environmental issues in the state.”

Sargent said the grant approach to addressing PFAS puts the burden on the affected communities. “It seems inequitable, and it seems like a lot of administrative waste,” she said, noting that many small towns or counties may lack the staffing or other resources to apply.

Grants for emerging compounds in water included in the plan are as follows:

• Clean Water State Revolving Fund, Emerging Compounds (DEQ) — $1.7 million nonrecurring. Provides federal infrastructure money for projects addressing emerging compounds such as PFAS.
• Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DEQ) — $60.6 million nonrecurring. Provides additional funds from infrastructure act and appropriates state matching funds.
• Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, Emerging Compounds (DEQ) — $23.2 million nonrecurring. Provides federal infrastructure money for projects addressing emerging compounds such as PFAS.
• Small and Disadvantaged Community Grants (DEQ) — $23.7 million nonrecurring. Provides federal infrastructure act funds for grants to disadvantaged communities with priority for projects addressing emerging compounds such as PFAS.

The bill also includes similar grant funds for water and wastewater infrastructure, including lead water service line replacement and remediation, and American Rescue Plan money for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grants.

Other coastal, environmental provisions

The budget includes a $6.5 million Department of Cultural and Natural Resources grant to the North Carolina Coastal Federation, publisher of Coastal Review, for living shoreline projects at Hammocks Beach State Park, Black Duck Island on the Oregon Inlet, Fort Macon State Park and the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Also, $1 million nonrecurring is included for DEQ as matching funds for a federal grant to the federation for building oyster sanctuaries.

The budget also gives the DEQ secretary authority to accept grant applications for nonfederal costs for projects dealing with beach nourishment, artificial dunes and other coastal storm damage mitigation and remediation.

Cooper’s budget proposal called for $4 million nonrecurring for flood-risk reduction and long-term resilience.

The bill provides $8 million in additional recurring funding for grants from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund for a total of $24.2 million and $11 million more for the Land and Water Fund for a total of $27.2 million.

The spending plan also includes $1.5 million nonrecurring for Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services cost-share assistance to swine farmers so they can install anaerobic digesters for biogas production, which the North Carolina Conservation Network called “a troubling use of public money.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center also was critical, saying in a statement that biogas projects rely on a “primitive system of storing untreated hog feces and manure in waste pits and spraying that waste onto nearby land” that pollutes waterways and the air and neighbors’ health, especially among Black, Latino and Native American families.

The budget also includes funding for shallow-draft inlet dredging.

One provision would change matching fund requirements for grants from the Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund. The fund is for projects such as dredging shallow-draft navigation channels and aquatic weed control in state waters, and for certain expenses related to beach and inlet management and dredge spoils sites.

North Carolina has a system of designated county development tiers used to determine various state funding opportunities to help with economic development. Currently, counties designated as Development Tier 1 zones must provide one nonstate dollar for every $2 from the fund for awarded dredging projects. The proposed budget would change the local match requirement to $1 for every $3 from the fund regardless of development tier.

The state is asking for public comment on a proposed plan to administer $100.5 million in federal funds appropriated in the state budget for stormwater projects.

Through the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure, the money is for cities, counties, their regional councils of government and nonprofit partners for projects to improve or create infrastructure for controlling stormwater quantity and quality.

The proposed plan describes how the funds will be administered, eligibility requirements, and draft priority rating systems for both stormwater construction projects and stormwater planning projects. The proposed plan may be viewed online.

The state is accepting comments until 5 p.m. June 3. Submit comments by email to dwi.publiccomments@ncdenr.gov with “Comments on Division of Water Infrastructure Proposed Plan for Stormwater Funding” in the subject line, or by mail to Cathy Akroyd, Division of Water Infrastructure, 1633 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27603.

The grants are administered from the Local Assistance for Stormwater Infrastructure Investments fund.

The money must be spent by the end of 2026.

The funding is part of the $1.69 billion appropriated by the North Carolina General Assembly from the state’s allocation of the American Rescue Plan Act for drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater investments. Information about the drinking water, wastewater and stormwater funding administered by the Division of Water Infrastructure is available at: https://deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/water-infrastructure

Clean energy, hog farm buyouts, forest preservation and management, and expansion of climate resiliency programs are among the key environmental features in Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposed 2022-23 budget.

Cooper’s $29.3 billion plan released last week allocates more than $140 million for clean energy and environmental initiatives including: $92 million for natural and working lands; $22 million for clean transportation projects; $15 million for environmental justice matters; $11 million for the expansion of clean energy access and adoption; and $1.9 million in energy efficiency enhancements.

Port infrastructure

Cooper’s budget calls for a nonrecurring $20 million reserve for infrastructure at the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s Radio Island property in Morehead City. The funding would be administered by the ports authority and the departments of Commerce and Transportation for “investments that best attract business tenants to the island.”

The Southeastern Wind Coalition applauded the move and, citing a recent offshore wind supply chain study commissioned by the Commerce Department, said that the improvements would help position North Carolina as a national leader in the offshore wind industry because Radio Island is well suited to support staging and manufacturing of offshore turbine components.

“This port positions North Carolina to service the offshore wind industry up and down the coast, creating jobs and economic growth for years to come,” Coalition President Katharine Kollins said in a statement Tuesday.

Conservation easements in the 100-year floodplain

A program designed to reduce the risk of water quality from potential pollution from hog farms within the 100-year floodplain would get $18 million under the governor’s proposed plan.

That funding would be funneled to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, or DACS, to buy permanent conservation easements on hog farms within the 100-year floodplain.

If approved, the funding could potentially pay for upward of 18 to 20 easements, said David Williams, deputy director of the state Division of Soil and Water Conservation.

“It’s very substantial,” he said. “It’s working out to be about $1 million per farm.”

Buyout costs cover the animal operations owner’s certification to operate a feedlot, removing the contents of hog lagoons and subsequent closure of those lagoons.

The volunteer-only swine floodplain buyout was created in November 1999 following hurricanes Floyd, Dennis and Irene, which caused catastrophic flooding that breached hog lagoons and drowned hundreds of livestock.

To date, 43 farms have been selected to participate in the program. Most of those occurred in the early to mid-2000s, Williams said.

They include more than 1,200 acres in conservation easements and the closure of more than 100 animal waste lagoons in the floodplain.

Applicants are selected for the program based on various criteria, including the elevation of lagoon dikes and production houses relative to the floodplain elevation, history of flooding on the property, and distance to a waterway classified as water supply or high-quality waters.

Farmers may use their land once it becomes part of a conservation easement for low-density agriculture, such as growing row crops or for pasture-based beef production.

Easements may not be used as spray fields for swine waste or nonagricultural development and require a soil and water conservation plan.

Williams said it’s hard to say exactly how many hog farms continue to operate within the 100-year floodplain, “but I would say there’s probably in the neighborhood of 40 or 50.”

Most of those are in the southeastern portion of the state.

Water quality, forests and resiliency

The budget would provide $6.8 million in recurring funds and a one-time, $20 million handout to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, or DNCR, to cover North Carolina Land and Water Fund grants for the protection and restoration of the state’s land and water resources.

Grants would pay for the restoration of degraded streams, development and improving stormwater treatment, and preserving military buffers.

Another $10 million in nonrecurring funds is designated to the purchase and restoration of peatland and pocosins to reduce wildfire risks, cut down carbon emissions, boost flood resilience and improve water quality.

Potential acquisition sites will be determined based on the results of DNCR’s Natural Heritage Program, which will inventory wetlands in the coastal plains.

The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services would receive a one-time $2 million sum to assist North Carolina landowners through cost-share ways to improve forest management on private lands.

The governor’s plan would beef up the state’s climate resiliency efforts, providing $10 million to expand the Resilient Communities Grant Program and provide grants aimed at helping local governments reduce flood risks and promote long-term resilience.

A total of $762,825 in recurring funds would also go to the program and resiliency staff.

Other provisions

Other budget recommendations include $3.7 million recurring and $20 million nonrecurring to the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund for state parks projects, development and renovation of local parks, and beach access.

Also included are $720,526 recurring and $122,500 nonrecurring funds for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to create a Coastal Habitat Assessment Program to map, evaluate vegetation and observe wetland changes in coastal habitats.

Cooper’s plan also includes a 5% pay raise for the state’s teachers and employees, $50 million in aid for first-time homeowners including public school teachers, emergency medical services personnel, career firefighters, and law enforcement, and the addition of 600,000 uninsured North Carolinians eligible for Medicaid.

HATTERAS — One day about two years ago, a shoebox wrapped in plastic arrived at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. Inside, there was a manual, written in German and stained orange by diesel fuel. Chillingly, it included maps of the North Carolina coast, marked with the locations of lighthouses.

With $4.2 million provided in this year’s state budget to fabricate and install the Hatteras museum’s exhibits, the public may soon be able to see the relic of the gruesome Battle of Atlantic, along with hundreds of other never-seen historic maritime artifacts. Bids for the exhibit plan are expected to go out soon.

“I am so pleased that this is done for Hatteras and North Carolina,” said North Carolina Maritime Museums Director Joseph Schwarzer, referring to completing the museum that was inspired decades ago to preserve the Outer Banks’ maritime history, “because this is important. Once you lose it, you never get it back.”

Standing earlier this year in the climate-controlled area behind the museum’s gallery, Schwarzer explained that the package of artifacts came from an unnamed diver who had retrieved the documents from the wardroom of the U-85, a German submarine torpedoed off Nags Head in April 1942 — the first U-boat the U.S. Navy had sunk during World War II.  

“They had all these books on the shelf,” the director said recently while showing off the manual the diver sent. “Fortunately, he put it in the freezer.”

‘Good stories, and there’s a lot of them’

Schwarzer was surrounded by remnants of many more astounding artifacts to soon be relocated from storage to exhibit space, ranging from detritus to whole pieces and memorializing centuries of dramatic maritime history off the Outer Banks that encompasses piracy, colonization, wars and thousands of shipwrecks, as well as history shown through its people — the U.S. Life-Saving Service rescuers, lighthouses and lifesaving stations, commercial and recreational fishing, diving and salvaging, and nor’easters and hurricanes.  

“The point is, there’s nothing here that isn’t historically significant,” Schwarzer said. “That comes back to, ’Let us tell our story.’ They’re good stories, and there’s a lot of them.”

As an example, he pointed to the stored equipment that had been used by the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct the last rescue with a breeches buoy, a type of seat developed by the lifesaving service to carry shipwreck victims to shore. That artifact, along with the Lyle gun that shot the line used to carry it, was interesting to see, but the saga afterwards made it much more so.

In the story Schwarzer summed up, the Honduran freighter Omar Babun was transiting off the coast near Rodanthe, heading to Havanna, Cuba, loaded with heavy equipment for a steel mill. The ship was caught in a gale and beached May 14, 1954. The Coast Guard rescued all 14 crew members with the breeches buoy.

The juicier part happened after the ship grounded. According to a Time magazine story that ran Aug. 2, 1954, a Buick dealer from Havelock and named Esveld “Nip” Canipe, had after flying over the ship in a chartered plane, decided to salvage the 194-foot Omar Babun, with an agreement with the insurance company that he would get 30 % of the value of the cargo he recovered. 

Miraculously, Canipe and a team of about 30 men, including 25 skeptical Outer Bankers, built a road to the ship and managed — just barely and with much effort — to pull cargo ashore. Canipe later refloated the Babun and got it to port in Norfolk. He was expecting to make about $100,000 in profit, over the estimated $40,000 cost of the salvage operation, the article said.

Meanwhile, Babun’s captain, who “may or may not have been working for the CIA,” Schwarzer said, later had one of his boats intercepted by the Cuban government, which might have been unhappy about the undelivered cargo. Another interesting tidbit is that Cuban leader Raul Castro is said to have been living in the captain’s old house in Cuba.

“This is a nothing shipwreck, but when you delve into it, it’s got all these aspects,” Schwarzer said.

And that what’s got Schwarzer so excited about finally being able to complete the exhibit work at the museum — the long-hidden-away artifacts can now tell the stories.

A long-incomplete but popular attraction

The genesis of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum goes back to 1986, when Hatteras villagers decided it would make sense to have a facility to house artifacts from the wreck of the Civil War-era Monitor that had been discovered a decade earlier offshore their village. Most of the items salvaged from the ironclad ended up going to the Mariner’s Museum in Newport, Virginia, but considering that about 2,000 or more ships were believed to have wrecked off the North Carolina coast, mostly along the Outer Banks, the concept of a shipwreck museum nonetheless gained momentum.

In 1999, ground was broken on the proposed $7 million facility, situated on a 7-acre site owned by the National Park Service at the south end of Hatteras Island. Initial costs were provided by project partners, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the park service.

The museum opened to the public in 2003 with changing exhibits, albeit incomplete exhibit space. The 19,000-square-foot museum has proven to be a popular attraction. It was transferred to the state in 2007, joining the system’s maritime museums in Beaufort and Southport. Although NOAA had earlier provided $600,000 for an exhibit design, estimated costs for the exhibit design started at about $2.5 million and kept inching up over the years and it remained unfunded.

The exhibit plan, estimated at $4.2 million, was approved last year.

Named in honor of the nickname given to Diamond Shoals, the treacherous area off Hatteras Island where for centuries many hundreds of ships wrecked, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is dedicated to preservation of not just shipwrecks, but to the 400 years of maritime history and culture of the Outer Banks.

The museum, which is free to visit and located across from Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry docks at the end of Hatteras Island, has featured new themed exhibits on a seasonal basis and offers year-round programs, including popular family-friendly scavenger hunts.

Despite being incomplete, the museum already has numerous detailed exhibits in its expansive gallery, themed on fishing, diving, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, piracy, lifesaving, Native Americans and storms. Artifacts on display include Civil War battle flags and garments, the bell from the Diamond Shoals lightship, an Enigma decoding machine salvaged from a U-boat, the original telegram sent from the Titanic that was discovered in the wall of the nearby weather station, and the partially restored original Fresnel lens from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

There is also a large window in one part of the gallery where visitors can look at the artifact collection, which Schwarzer estimated totals more than 100,000 objects, in storage, with selected highlights rotated in front of the window.

In addition to the state appropriation, the museum depends on the $50,000 to $60,000 a year in donations that the public gives at the door, as well as funds raised by the museum’s nonprofit friends group, for programming and maintenance needs.

Once the installation is done, the hope is that members of the community, many of whom have lived on the island for generations, and whose family roots go back centuries, will donate treasured items, said Danny Couch, president of the museum’s friends group.

“We know that they’re there,” Couch said, adding that the issue is providing the assurance that the artifacts will find a suitable home. “We know that we can do that.”

In the past, Couch said, there were instances where community members had entrusted their family’s souvenirs after promises were made, but the objects were never seen again.

“That’s going to continue to be a sell to the local community, to make sure the comfort level is there,” he said.

Couch said he’s just glad that after years of struggle to finish the museum, they can now breathe easier and concentrate on programming rather than fundraising.

“It’s such a sense of relief,” he said. “After sailing around the world and coming into port, now we’re finally at the dock.”

Major new policies on resilience and flood mitigation and a return to high levels of conservation and water quality funding have been hailed as the major win in this year’s state budget, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t large swaths of concern amid the more than 1,200 pages of fund allocations and policy provisions.

The two-year budget is the first full biennial budget to become law since 2017. The resilience and flooding provisions will be put into action with allocations totaling close to $1 billion, much of that legislation received the strong backing of the state’s environmental organizations.

Cassie Gavin, senior director of governmental affairs with the North Carolina Sierra Club, said the initiatives showed strong commitments on resiliency and conservation, but there were provisions scattered through the document that wouldn’t have passed scrutiny otherwise.

“There were some big highlights,” she said, “and then definitely, we had some special provisions that shouldn’t belong in the budget at all.”

‘Snag and drag’

One section that’s drawn criticism would pump $38 million into a program for stream debris removal that allows contractors to operate outside water-protection and fire-control rules.

“We’re very concerned about snag and drag and all the exemptions in the provision,” Brooks Rainey Pearson, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, recently told Coastal Review.

The program would direct the money from a state capital and infrastructure fund to the Department of Environmental Quality.

DEQ would then develop a plan and schedule for stream debris removal within five “targeted watersheds” — the Neuse River basin, Cape Fear River basin, Lumber River basin, Tar-Pamlico River basin and White Oak River basin.

DEQ is to contract with private companies to do the work, but budget language authorizing the program restricts the department’s authority over the projects and exempts contractors from requirements for stormwater or water quality permits as well as all state game laws and forestry statues on open burning. It also directs DEQ to waive any rights of certification under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act for projects funded by the program.

Rainey Pearson said the combination of exemptions means contractors will be able to drag debris up on the banks and burn it with little oversight.

Grady McCallie, policy director for the North Carolina Conservation Network, said the provision as written would greatly reduce the amount of input state regulators would have in reviewing projects, even if they’re required to have a federal permit.

“If you have to get Army Corps of Engineers-permitted for doing stuff in waters of the United States, you still have to get that permit. This doesn’t change that, but it does eliminate the state’s ability to condition and comment on that permit to protect water quality,” McCallie said. That takes the state out of its role in water quality protection and reduces the input of people with on-the-ground familiarity with the watershed. “It’s not a good idea to get rid of that.”

The legislature did delay funding any stream debris removal projects under the program until at least the first draft of a statewide flooding blueprint is completed. That could give the legislature time to go back and tweak the oversight exemptions as well as analyze the impacts, McCallie said.

“It would be really dumb just to spend this money and end up increasing flooding, by speeding up the movement of water downstream on to other communities,” he said. “There’s every chance that you can do that if you do without studying what you’re doing and without environmental review. You could think that you’re taking water off one community but what you’re really doing is just speeding it down to the next and flooding them.”

Career jobs to become political appointments

Another provision that’s getting attention from environmental groups would shift five positions in the Office of Administrative Hearings from career positions to political appointees.

Although those positions haven’t been named, Rainey Pearson said the worry is how the shift could impact administrative hearings going forward. 

“That’s often the first stop for environmental cases,” she said.

McCallie said the administrative judges oversee challenges to environmental permits known as contested cases.

“What we don’t know is whether these five positions would be administrative law judges. There’s been nothing in writing to say that one way or another, but we’re concerned about the politicization of that office,” he said. “They need to be impartial, and having career civil servants doing that makes them more familiar with the laws that they are reviewing. That makes a lot of sense.”

The provision would give the chief administrative law judge authority to designate the five from existing positions. The chief judge is appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Last summer, new Chief Justice Paul Newby appointed Donald van der Vaart, who served as DEQ secretary under Gov. Pat McCrory, to the position.

Local government wins, losses

Gavin said that as the negotiations were winding up, there was an all-out effort to dial back many of the environmental provisions aimed at restricting local governments.

Earlier versions of the budget included limitations on local governments to implement tree-protection ordinances and water-quality requirements.

Those provisions were stripped in the final round of talks on the bill, Gavin said. So was another provision aimed at reducing wetland protections.

One long-sought set of changes benefitting the billboard industry did make it into the final bill. Gavin said those changes further reduce authority over billboards by both local governments and the Department of Transportation and could clear the way for more digital signs as well.

“It’s all the little things that the outdoor advertising industry has previously sought before but not gotten,” she said. “It’s essentially a previous bill that was vetoed by the governor in past years and it’s stuck in there to get through the legislature even though it wouldn’t normally.”     

There are a lot of firsts and significant investments in the newly minted state budget, and among the biggest of those that check both boxes is a broad array of new efforts to increase resiliency and decrease flooding — along with the kind of money that could make it happen.

Remarkable as that might be, it comes as no surprise.

Although there was ample skepticism that a full, two-year budget plan could be worked out, given the contentious relationship between the legislative and executive branches, there was little doubt that the resiliency and flooding plans and the kind of funding necessary for them would come out of this year’s session.

All three budget plans proposed by the state House, Senate and Gov. Roy Cooper included a major push to bolster resiliency and address flooding.

Among the initiatives are $20 million to develop a statewide Flood Resiliency Blueprint to guide strategy at the local and state level; $15 million for a new transportation infrastructure resiliency fund and $15 million for a new disaster relief fund for transportation-related flood mitigation; $8.5 million for an innovative flood mitigation pilot project in the Stoney Creek watershed near Goldsboro; $5 million for Southport waterfront stabilization; $1.15 million in local coastal planning and management grants; and $300,000 to hire coastal resiliency planners.

Also in the package is about $70 million for local flood mitigation projects and disaster recovery, and another $40 million for coastal storm damage, with up to $20 million earmarked for the Brunswick County town of Oak Island shoreline stabilization and $2 million allocated to the North Carolina Coastal Federation for living shorelines, oyster reefs and marsh-restoration grants.

In all, the budget appropriates roughly half of $800 million in the state’s disaster and resilience reserve toward local and statewide flood mitigation and resiliency, as well as new personnel to assist local governments in planning and developing shovel-ready projects.

Although there’s a focus on areas of the coastal plain repeatedly hit by both hurricanes and the more frequent heavy downpours that have marked this era of climate change, any question about whether flooding was mostly an eastern concern was answered again this year in August when deadly floods from Tropical Storm Fred underlined the vulnerability of the state’s mountain and foothill communities. The budget allocates about $124.4 million to them for disaster relief.

In statements released Friday, shortly after Cooper signed the budget, Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, and Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, who led the flooding and resiliency efforts in the House and Senate, respectively, said early on in the session that the intent was to break away from dealing with disasters one at a time and move toward a more forward-thinking approach.

“North Carolina has now been hit by two 1,000-year floods within the past five years,” Bell said last week. “This budget provides an historic and unprecedented investment to help these local communities recover and prepare for future disasters. This is the largest proactive, statewide package that North Carolina has ever made to address flooding. It will help put an end to the costly cycle of spending after disasters.”

Perry said the changes would make a long-term difference in flood-prone areas.

“We can’t stop flooding, but we should work to reduce its severity,” he said. “This budget takes a huge step forward to reduce flooding and prepare us for the next big storm.”

Rep. Charlie Miller, R-Brunswick, said the legislation would assist coastal areas that are struggling to deal with repeated flooding.

“As a Southport native, I’ve seen countless storms decimate the area and can recognize the importance of having a proactive plan in place, not waiting until we’re faced with the recovery process to identify that we needed to be more prepared,” Miller said.

Follow-through required

Will McDow, director of the Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds project for Environmental Defense Fund, said the state is taking a critically important step that will require substantial coordination across multiple state and federal agencies. 

“This really needs to be an all-of-government approach to make sure that things are coordinated and being done in a way that is additive to the state and not creating confusion or duplicating efforts,” McDow said Monday in an interview with Coastal Review. “Because this can’t be a one-time investment. This is going to take multiple years of investing. Eastern North Carolina has been the current focus, but Hurricane Fred shows us that western North Carolina is also in the bull’s-eye of these climate-induced floods.”

McDow, who was part of a budget negotiating team representing environmental groups, said the budget sets up an interagency group to coordinate and monitor the effectiveness of the programs.

Much of the responsibility for implementing the programs falls to the North Carolina Office of Resiliency and Recovery, which was set up in 2018 under the Department of Public Safety mainly to manage federal disaster relief following Hurricane Florence.

NCORR, now also administering numerous programs including disaster relief from other recent hurricanes and tropical storms, became a permanent state agency under the new budget and picked up three new positions dedicated to resilience planning and implementation.

The Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Mitigation Services is charged with development of the Flood Resiliency Blueprint, which according to the budget “shall form the backbone of a State flood planning process that increases community resiliency to flooding, shall be a resource for riverine and stream management to reduce flooding, and should support the establishment and furtherance of local government stormwater maintenance programs.”

McDow translates that to mean the development of a “decision-support tool” that will allow local governments to weigh their options in building resiliency.

“To me, it’s just a central piece. It’s not the largest funding piece, but it’s possibly the most important connector to all of this work,” he said.

McDow said the blueprint will build on extensive mapping and modeling that the state has already done to give communities a better understanding of what’s needed to reduce flooding and the most effective ways to go about them. “It’s going to help communities really know at a tangible level, what they need to do.”

Some of the projects funded in the budget will study whether natural solutions upstream, such as engineering agricultural fields to flood, rebuilding wetlands and reforesting are more effective and less costly than building up levees or raising roads downstream.

Other aspects are also aimed at assisting local decision making with funding for local planning and additional staff and support for the Division of Coastal Management’s Resilient Coastal Communities Program, which seeks to help communities to assess their risk and vulnerability, engage the public and identify and prioritize projects.

Updated Thursday:

Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday signed the state budget and two other bills into law, his office announced.

Cooper had said during a press conference Tuesday that he would sign the $53 billion spending plan unveiled Monday, clearing the way for passage of the first biennial state budget since 2017.

“This budget moves North Carolina forward in important ways. Funding for high speed internet, our universities and community colleges, clean air and drinking water and desperately needed pay increases for teachers and state employees are all critical for our state to emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever,” Cooper said Thursday in a statement. “I will continue to fight for progress where this budget falls short but believe that, on balance, it is an important step in the right direction.”

Cooper also signed House Bill 404, which provides limited civil immunity for 911 call service providers, and Senate Bill 183, which expands the use of ignition interlock systems to reduce alcohol-related accidents.

Original report, “State budget sails toward passage,” published Nov. 16 follows below:

The long-running standoff between state House and Senate leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper ended Tuesday, clearing the way for passage of the first biennial state budget since 2017.

The plan would spend $25.9 billion this year and $27 billion next year and includes pay raises for state employees and cost-of-living adjustments for retirees, along with significant funding increases for coastal infrastructure, flood resilience and the largest appropriations for land conservation, parks and clean water projects in more than a decade.

The legislation, the product of a lengthy, drawn-out negotiating process between the legislative chambers and Cooper, was announced Monday and cleared its first vote in the Senate 40-8 Tuesday, shortly after Cooper announced he would sign the bill.

The Senate is expected to give the bill final approval Wednesday and send it on to the House, where it requires two votes over two days before it goes to the governor.

In a noon press conference detailing the pros and cons of the budget plan, Cooper said he was disappointed with education spending totals, lack of Medicaid expansion — a major hitch in the 2019-2020 negotiations — and GOP tax policies, but added that the bill and the state needed to move forward.

“There are critical funding opportunities in this budget that we must seize now, in this extraordinary time,” Cooper said. “Many of those opportunities would evaporate if I vetoed the budget and Republicans simply left Raleigh rather than reenter negotiations.”

Cooper also objected to several provisions that he said were unconstitutional and predicted they would ultimately be overturned in a court challenge.

Among the dozens of other policy provisions are two that make the both the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory and the North Carolina Office of Resiliency and Recovery permanent parts of state government.

NCORR was formed in the wake of Hurricane Florence to administer extensive federal aid programs and coordinate resiliency policy. In the new budget, NCORR’s work is expanded as part of a broad framework of flooding initiatives and resiliency projects, including development of a statewide blueprint to detail risks and strategies to prevent flooding.

The blueprint is part of more than $1 billion in spending on water and sewer infrastructure, flood prevention and resilience grants.

The Collaboratory, which was started in 2016 to tap into university science resources and coordinate policy research, has been involved in environmental issues around emerging contaminants and water quality as well as coastal efforts on shellfish leasing, oyster promotion and marine fisheries policy.

In this year’s budget, the Collaboratory is charged with conduction a comprehensive study of fisheries policies.

Coastal and environmental advocates praised the measure.

Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation and publisher of Coastal Review, called the budget historic for the North Carolina coast.

“It makes investments in flood resilience, water quality, living shorelines, oysters and the shellfish industry and coastal debris clean up at a scale that we have not seen before. Thank you to all the legislators and Gov. Cooper for working together on this bipartisan compromise spending plan,” Miller said.

“North Carolina’s budget includes historic investments in flood resilience and the highest level of state funding for conservation in over a decade. This is the kind of bold investment North Carolina needs to protect and restore our state’s natural landscapes in a way that benefits everyone. We’ll get cleaner air and water, more habitat for birds, and safer, healthier communities for people,” said Zach Wallace, senior policy manager at Audubon North Carolina.

Will McDow, the Environmental Defense Fund’s director of Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds, said the budget was “an important down payment” for a more flood-resilient future.

“Investments in natural infrastructure will deliver increased flood protection for more communities, more farmers and more businesses across the entire state — creating jobs while also improving the quality of our environment,” he said. “No region of our state is immune to the threat of flooding. Investments in natural solutions, such as floodplain and wetland restoration, help reduce the risk of flooding, while also increasing the health and vitality of our environment and delivering quality of life improvements for communities from the coast to the mountains.”

Kirk Ross and Mark Hibbs contributed to this report.

After years of on-and-off negotiations, a set of sweeping energy policy changes sailed through the North Carolina General Assembly this week after a deal by legislative leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper cleared the way for its passage.

On Thursday, House Bill 951, Energy Solutions for North Carolina, was approved by a vote of 90-20 in the House after passing the Senate 42-7 a day earlier.

Cooper was expected to sign the bill as soon as this weekend.

The legislation would require Duke Energy and other major electricity producers to reach carbon-reduction goals of 70% by 2030, and a zero-carbon goal by 2050.

The goals are in line with Cooper’s 2018 Executive Order 80, which called for the state to commit to aggressively lowering its carbon dioxide emissions.

General Assembly leaders were cool to the idea at the time and both chambers have generally avoided taking up carbon-reduction goals directly.

An earlier version of the new energy legislation did not include the targets but relied on an extensive framework of rules and standards for a mix of energy sources that would have the effect of reducing emissions. That version of the bill, which passed the House in mid-July, ran 49 pages. At the time, its sponsors admitted it was imperfect and promised it would be very different once it returned from the Senate.

As predicted, it is.

Trimmed down to 10 pages, most of the proscriptive language on the mix of energy sources has been cut and the bill puts the responsibility for creating the rules and standards for the strategy, including the phaseout of Duke’s fleet of coal fired units, with the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

The commission is a seven-member board whose members are appointed by the governor but who must be confirmed by the Senate.

The new legislation, put together and negotiated in a behind the scenes stakeholder process over the course of the session, started on its quick course to passage last week following the announcement of an agreement.

On Friday afternoon, in a rare moment of unanimity in messaging Cooper, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, put out identical statements heralding the deal.

The bill quickly moved through the Senate Tuesday and Wednesday without amendment, although Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabbarus, a key negotiator, acknowledged that he would seek changes in response to criticisms through a technical corrections bill later in the session. 

The House took up the legislation Thursday as a concurrence vote on the Senate version, which does not require a committee hearing, and passed it shortly after noon as the last item of the week.

During floor debate, Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, an original House sponsor, said the Senate simplified the legislation by removing carve-outs and mandates for use of specific energy sources and putting policy choices like the mix of sources and the schedule for phaseout of coal-fired units in the hands of the Utilities Commission. He stressed that the commission was charged with doing so in a way that prioritizes using a “least-cost” method to protect consumers and an array of sources that guarantee reliability.

Opposition to the bill focused on the potential impact of sections of the bill that could allow multiyear rate hikes, instead of the current system which requires utility companies to take rate hikes to the commission on an annual basis.

Opponents said the bill allows too much wiggle room for Duke Energy to get around goals and raise prices.

House members who voted against it said it was being rushed through and that Newton’s promise of tweaks to the plan weren’t enough to satisfy concerns.

“I do like what we have in part one, about the carbon reduction,” Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, said Thursday. “I think we are in a climate crisis. I think science has proven it, and we should have these goals to reduce the carbon, and to go down 70% by 2030. I think is admirable, but I think it’s aspirational.”

Morey said she was worried that the goals would never be met without more teeth in the bill because the bill allows the commission to reset the goals every two years. She also questioned whether it would be able to keep rate hikes from hurting low-income customers.

Environmental and consumer advocates have also expressed a divided view of the bill.

A statement from the Southern Environmental Law Center said the bill did not go far enough to make sure reductions would actually be achieved. 

“While the Southern Environmental Law Center strongly supports the goals to reduce heat-trapping carbon pollution in House Bill 951 and appreciates the efforts to negotiate a bipartisan energy bill, we are concerned that the current bill will not achieve those reductions and fails to spread the clean energy transition to include low-income customers,” according to the statement.

House and Senate members who shared similar concerns but opted to vote in favor of the bill, said it was important to move forward in climate policy.

Rep. Graig Meyer, D-Orange, said he wanted to support the spirit of compromise among legislators who came together to advance the goals in the bill. He said he was disappointed the legislature deferred to the Utilities Commission to work out the details, but said that there is a consensus to put a process in place to reduce carbon emissions is significant.

“I think that’s why I’ll end up voting for the bill, because it sets a goal that I think is so critically important,” Meyer said, “and I appreciate those members of the Republican Party who haven’t been very vocal in support of major climate change legislation for being willing to vote and be on board for this bill.”

In all, a dozen Democrats voted against the bill. They were joined by eight Republicans, including Rep. Larry Pittman of Cabbarus County, who gave a lengthy speech in support of carbon dioxide, called anthropogenic climate change “a farce and a fraud” and called on members of his caucus to vote against the bill.

“All this hysteria about the production of CO2 and the supposed need to reduce it is nothing more than a not-so-well-hidden agenda of government control of the people and our lives,” Pittman said.

It is not.

Despite objections from both sides of the aisle, the bill has enjoyed strong support.

Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, and co-director of the Southern Blue Ridge advocacy organization Mountain True, said it marks a tangible change in attitudes on climate change.

“This is a first step to protecting future generations of North Carolinians,” Mayfield said in a statement after the Senate vote. “With this legislation, we can say that combating climate change is a bipartisan issue.” 

Andrew Hutson, Audubon North Carolina executive director and National Audubon Society vice president, also called it a turning point. 

“We know the stakes of climate change for birds and people, especially communities on the front lines who are already facing the impacts of extreme weather and air pollution. This bill will clean up our power sector and deliver carbon reductions at a time that we can’t afford more delays,” Hutson said.

This story has been updated.

House and Senate negotiators are working on a budget deal after the House approved its version 72-41 following 10 hours of floor debate last week. The House plan would spend $25.7 billion this year and $26.7 billion next year.

Although the amount on the bottom line remains the same for both chambers, a House and Senate conference committee will start working through differences large and small between the chambers.

Like the Senate, the House plan includes significant appropriations and policy provisions for flooding mitigation and resilience programs, part of a major new surge in state initiatives in natural resources, parks and conservation. That includes a major boost for the state’s Land and Water Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund and a substantial flow of funds into new, flood-prevention strategies.

Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said the budget was the best for the environment that she’s seen in her 15 years in the legislature. She said the commitment to the Land and Water Fund and the parks trust fund would make a real difference.

“During the pandemic we all know where people wanted to be, and it was in their parks, it was outside,” she said. “This is money for our folks, this is money for our constituents, to make sure that those parks and those grants to our local governments are there for them.”

House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, said the House plan’s roughly $1 billion aimed at flood mitigation and disaster recovery represents an important shift toward more pre-disaster strategies.

“This bipartisan plan provides historic and unprecedented investment in tools to help the local communities recover from previous damage and prepare for future disasters,” Bell said during a budget announcement last week. “For every dollar spent on predisaster mitigation today, taxpayers save four to seven in disaster recovery funding on the back end.”

Bell said the plan would spend more than $465 million on planning and statewide and local mitigation projects as well as set aside another $330 million for future projects.

Most of the flood-mitigation and resilience provisions in the budget stem from House Bill 500, which was introduced in June.

While several sections of the legislation correspond to priorities outlined by the Senate in its budget, there’s still an array of differences between the two chambers, mainly in how the flood programs will ultimately be administered.

Those differences, including the role of the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, could be settled through the budget or standalone legislation.

That includes NCORR itself, which was set up under the Department of Public Safety in the wake of Hurricane Florence to manage federal aid and develop resiliency programs. It was originally authorized for three years. Language in both budgets would establish it as a permanent agency.

Although the final package is still a work in progress, the flood and resiliency projects that made the list in both chambers’ budgets are likely to make it into the conference committee report.

They include $10 million for local and regional resiliency planning assistance, $20 million for a statewide flood resiliency blueprint, $40 million for Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund and dozens of local projects.

Coastal area projects on the list include $2 million to the North Carolina Coastal Federation for living shorelines, oyster reef and marsh restoration; $1 million to Hyde County for Lake Mattamuskeet Restoration Drainage project; $2 million to Carolina Beach to complete the dredging of Lake Park; $20 million to Oak Island for beach nourishment; $5 million to Southport for waterfront stabilization; and $250,000 to Carteret County for Marshallberg flood mitigation, ditch restoration and harbor discharge project.

Wetlands provision out

Although most of the House plan remained intact through last week’s debates, one proposed change in wetland protections was removed from the final bill.

The provision would have removed state protections for isolated wetlands. New federal Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rules dropped protections for isolated wetlands in 2020.

Environmental advocates said the provision could have left more than 1 million acres statewide without any protections, with the bulk of the wetlands concentrated in eastern North Carolina.  

Other controversial environmental provisions remain in the bill. One would prevent local governments from adopting tree ordinances and tree protections on their own, requiring them to be only adopted through an act of the legislature.

Another provision would prohibit local stormwater and riparian buffer rules that are more stringent than state or federal requirements.

A third provision would eliminate all local regulation of billboards. 

Scott Mooneyham, communications director for the North Carolina League of Municipalities, said the large number of provisions has left the budget “top heavy” with non-budget items. He said provisions such as the tree ordinance haven’t been reviewed by committees and need a full hearing.

“These ideas, which will affect a lot of people’s lives, ought to rise and fall of their own accord, rather than being put into a 670-page budget document,” Mooneyham said Monday in an email response to Coastal Review. “The nature of state budget negotiations is that public input from this point forward will be limited, and a final agreement will be subject to an up or down vote without the ability to make changes.”

Deal or no deal

Both chambers are far behind schedule on the budget, but could wrap up work in the next two weeks on the final legislative package.

After that, the outlook is far from certain. House Democrats last week pointed out that although they had scant participation in drafting the budget, they expected to have a seat at the table during final negotiations between the governor and the legislature.

Legislative leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper, who have been effectively engaged in a budget standoff since 2019, have expressed hope that a final deal can be reached in this year’s negotiation.

During a press conference Wednesday, House Minority Leader Robert Reives, D-Chatham, said this year appears to be different and an agreement is much more possible.

“We have differences of opinion, obviously, about policy and about how best to send us home,” he said. “But I do believe that everybody involved in this process understands the word compromise and is fine with the word compromise, and we are all ready to see what we can do to come to some type of compromise, to figure out to make sure that we’ve got the budget.”

North Carolina’s new fiscal year started on July 1 and state agencies have been operating under an automatic budget law that funds operations under the prior budget’s levels.

House budget committees rolled out their spending and policy plans Thursday, including large increases in funding for conservation, flood prevention and stormwater infrastructure.

But details in the plan, including an abundance of earmarks for local projects and a controversial provision to drop protections for hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands, have drawn questions — even as the bill is on track for a final vote as early as next week.

Conservation, flood prevention

The House budget includes large increases for the state’s Land and Water Fund, Parks and Recreation Trust Fund and other conservation efforts, and appropriates close to $2 billion toward flood prevention, resiliency and stormwater and wastewater infrastructure.

Much of that would come from a $1.58 billion transfer from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund to the Department of Environmental Quality for four department-run programs.

The newly created Viable Utility Reserve would receive $500 million for grants to financially distressed water and sewer utilities. The state Drinking Water/Wastewater Reserve would receive $900,000 to use for infrastructure grants. Another $80 million would go to local systems for assistance with inventories, merger studies and training. And $100 million in grants would be available for local stormwater infrastructure projects.

Legislators already have carved out a considerable number of earmarks, with more than 100 county and municipal grants specified in the bill.

Conservation funds in the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources would see the same scale of increases envisioned in the proposed Senate budget, although some differences remain between the two chambers.

The House is proposing $80 million in the current fiscal year for the Land and Water and $70 million for the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.

A state disaster relief fund would provide $20 million for Land and Water Fund grants for floodplains and wetland areas, and $10 million from the parks fund would be dedicated to grants for local governments for persons with disabilities. 

A new, separate fund for trails throughout the state is also in the plan. The Complete the Trails Fund would start up with a $29 million appropriation to distribute $25 million for trail construction, planning and design projects.

Worries over wetlands

The jump in resiliency and conservation spending in this year’s session has drawn praise from environmental advocates, but several budget provisions are raising concerns, especially a wetland provision in one section that appears to conflict with flood prevention strategies elsewhere in the budget.

The provision would strip away existing state protections for isolated wetlands, which until recently were protected under federal rules.

Under the new Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rule, those wetlands are no longer under federal protection. That protection required permits for development or other impacts to go through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The wetlands are still under state protection, but there was no regulatory system for them until a recent set of temporary rules were put in place by the state’s Environmental Management Commission, or EMC. The commission is working on permanent rules.

The budget provision would strip that protection for any isolated wetland not classified as a bog or a basin.

During a hearing Thursday on the budget plan by the House Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources appropriations committee, Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, questioned the intent of the provision and whether it was meant to preempt the new EMC rules.

Joy Hicks, senior director for governmental affairs and policy at DEQ, told the committee that the department wanted to review the change. She said the EMC rules are needed to provide a permitting system for some types of wetlands.  

“When the new Waters of the U.S. came out, it left what we are considering orphaned pieces of wetland that the Clean Water Act no longer covers under the federal rule,” Hicks said. State rules say that all wetlands are protected but there’s no permitting mechanism for those wetlands.

“This would go in and exempt those from having to be permitted.” Hicks said, adding that the provision represents a change in policy that so far hasn’t been vetted by a legislative committee.

Mary Maclean Asbill, attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the attempt to remove protections on wetlands goes against resilience and flood mitigation strategies elsewhere in the budget that call for increases in wetlands and restoration projects to reduce downstream flooding.

“This would be terrible for North Carolina’s wetlands and for North Carolina communities. State leaders should be doing all that they can to protect North Carolina citizens and communities from extreme flooding, yet this does the opposite,” Asbill said Thursday afternoon.

The law center has estimated that there are about 900,000 acres in the Cape Fear and Neuse river basins that are potentially no longer protected by federal rules as a result of the 2020 change.

Harrison also objected to provisions in the budget that would preempt local ordinances on stormwater, wetlands and riparian buffers. Under the new provisions, those ordinances can only be used to meet state or federal laws, preventing local governments from adopting stronger standards.

While there was a lot of “good stuff” in the budget, Harrison said she opted not to vote for it. Instead, she plans to seek amendments to the relevant sections either during next week’s full appropriations committee hearing or when the bill gets to the House floor.

“I appreciate that extra funding for resiliency and conservation, but I’m super troubled by the provisions in there relating to wetlands and stormwater and buffers,” Harrison said.

The subcommittee approved its section of the budget on a voice vote.

Running behind

The House budget is more than six weeks behind schedule. The Senate, which started the budget process, was also behind schedule this year, approving its plan on June 25, five days before the end of the state’s fiscal year.

Since the beginning of the new fiscal year, state agencies have been operating under automatic funding legislation, which maintains prior-year spending levels.

As budget plans begin to gel in Raleigh, it’s growing more likely that North Carolina’s Land and Water Fund, a longtime driver of clean water and conservation projects in the state, could receive funding this cycle at levels not seen in more than a decade.

The fund, which was formed under the 2013 merger of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Natural Heritage Fund, issued just over $21 million in grants in its last cycle from a list of applications totaling four times that amount. One of several areas of state government not funded through one of last year’s mini budgets, the Land and Water Fund appropriation has remained where it was in 2018. This year’s Senate budget calls for upping that amount considerably to $73.2 million in this fiscal year and $53.2 million next year.

On Monday, Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees natural resource funding, confirmed that the House leadership is on board with the increase.

In a response to Coastal Review, McElraft said the House is looking at an increase that would be the “same size or bigger.”

The last appropriation in that range was the 2007-08 funding cycle, just as what became the Great Recession started to eat away at state revenues.

The fund’s appropriation drifted lower until then-Gov. Pat McCrory’s 2013-14 budget proposal all but zeroed it out. The General Assembly maintained it, although at greatly reduced levels, with much of the funding earmarked for buffers around military installations. Appropriations began a slow increase after that, but still not at the levels envisioned at the inception of Clean Water Management Trust Fund in 1996 when then-Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight set an annual target of $100 million.

Will Summer, interim executive director of the Land and Water Fund, said the additional appropriation will help catch up with some of the demand on the fund.

“For many years, the demand for our grant program has outpaced our available funds many times over. Last year, we had $82.6 million in requests, but we were only able to fund $20.1 million,” Summer said in an email reply to Coastal Review. “The result of this disparity is the loss of opportunities to protect and restore critically important places, including areas that provide public access for outdoor recreation, hunting, and fishing. These opportunities help create economic sustainability and ensure better resiliency in the face of natural disaster.”

In September, the fund’s board of trustees will review $62.7 million in requests, but Summer said it is hard to judge what the real demand is for grants since local governments have likely held back on requests during the recent low funding cycles.

“After several consecutive years facing such competitive grant cycles, many of our applicants have adjusted their efforts accordingly and submitted fewer and smaller applications despite increasing need,” Summer said. “I anticipate that if a budget passes this year that prioritizes conservation, our next grant cycle, which opens in December, will show even more demand.”

Bill Holman, state director of The Conservation Fund, said the jump in the state appropriation and the potential for higher levels going forward could make a difference for larger land acquisitions.

“It really makes possible larger conservation projects and more projects that are landscape scale,” he said.

The increase, he said, is sorely needed to help keep up with rapidly increasing land prices.

Holman said there are large-scale land acquisition projects that dovetail with the strategy of using natural lands to improve resilience with several projects under study in the lower Cape Fear and Waccamaw watersheds that would restore floodplains and reduce downstream flooding.

Summer said it’s unclear exactly how communities will respond to a funding increase, especially give the challenges of the past year, but he anticipates that the past year has underlined the importance of parks and open space.

“I expect that many communities will implement and continue plans to increase their parks and greenways,” Summer said. “I also hope to see more projects that focus on protecting and restoring floodplain and wetland areas that can help make our communities more resilient to extreme weather events.”

Learn more

• 2021 North Carolina Land and Water Fund Grant Applications

HATTERAS — Thirty years ago, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum was officially designated a nonprofit educational organization. That was three years after the maritime museum on the end of Hatteras Island was authorized by Congress, and three years before Congress provided construction funds. But somehow, 13 years after the facility was transferred to the state, money to display its unique artifacts has never been provided.

“It’s the only state facility that the exhibits have gone unfunded,” said Danny Couch, chairman of the board of the nonprofit Friends of the Graveyard of Atlantic Museum, the museum’s support arm. That means that the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, is the sole museum in North Carolina without permanent exhibitions.

This year could be different. For the first time, an appropriation of $4.2 million to implement the state-approved exhibit plan for the museum was included in both the governor’s and the state Senate’s proposed budgets.

“I hope we get the House support,” said Joseph Schwarzer, the museum’s executive director, who has been at the helm since 1995. “It’s been a long time.”

In what could be a bonanza year for the state’s maritime museums, another bill, House Bill 87, that would provide $3 million for a site plan for a new maritime museum at Gallants Channel in Beaufort, is also in the governor’s and Senate’s budgets.

Couch said that state Rep. Bobby Hanig, R-Dare, sent an email to Dare commissioners on June 23 stating that the chair of the state House appropriation committee gave a “favorable” response to inclusion of the museum exhibit funds in the House bill.

Hanig did not respond to a message left on his cellphone seeking information about the bill.

Jerri Sutton, president of the Maritime Heritage Foundation of Beaufort, is confident that the measure will make it through conference.

“We feel that we’re on track for a joint bill, and will go on to the governor for his signature,” she said.

Schwarzer, who was named director of the North Carolina Maritime Museums in 2012 while maintaining his role in Hatteras, said he wholeheartedly supports a new facility in Beaufort, which he said has outgrown its current downtown location. But the Hatteras museum, he added, has profound Outer Banks coastal history to be told with its artifact collection.

“It’s really incredible,” he said. “It needs to be done.”

About 2,000 ships, or more, representing 400 years of maritime history, are believed to have wrecked off the coast of North Carolina, most of them along the Outer Banks. It is often described as the largest and most important concentration of submerged cultural resources in the Western Hemisphere. 

The name “Graveyard of the Atlantic” refers to part of the coastal trade route off Cape Hatteras that required ships to navigate around the treacherous Diamond Shoals, feared for its shallow and shifting sandbars that destroyed hulls and forced vessels to move closer to shore, thus making them more vulnerable to attack. 

“These (were) major shipping lanes,” said Couch, a member of the Dare County Board of Commissioners and a Hatteras Island native. “They took evasive maneuvers, trying to make it the most difficult target they could. You wanted to get past the Outer Banks as quick as you could.” 

There are four sunken U-boats off the shores of the Outer Banks, where the Battle of the Atlantic raged early in World II, at much cost.

 “U-boats were the ultimate stealth weapon,” Coach said. For a time, Germans submarines were sinking an average of a vessel a day — 180 ships in the first six months of the war, Couch said, because the United States had no answer for U-boats.

Storms were also a big factor in the countless shipwrecks spanning hundreds of years buried on beaches or in sound and ocean waters off the coast. Thanks to its proximity to the shipping lanes and its exposed position in the Atlantic, as well as the rich fishing waters of the Gulf Stream, the Outer Banks is a cultural goldmine of maritime history: Native American, Black American, Colonial American, Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Age of Piracy, the U.S. Lifesaving Service.

The first transmission from the stricken Titanic was received in Hatteras, as was transmission of the first musical note. The first English child was born on the Outer Banks, and Blackbeard the infamous pirate was killed on the Outer Banks.

Couch said he has been involved with the project practically from the beginning in 1986, when Hatteras villagers first proposed having a museum to house artifacts salvaged from the then-freshly discovered Civil War-era ironclad Monitor. But the state of Virginia was able to build its large Monitor museum first, with the promise to share artifacts with a Hatteras museum when it was built.

Initially, costs for the $7 million, 19,000-square-foot Hatteras museum were provided by project partners the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Park Service, which owns the 7-acre site across from the state ferry docks at the south-western tip of the village. The museum has been opened since 2003, with changing exhibits.

Early on, NOAA provided $600,000 for an exhibit design, but to date the funds for the final exhibition work have fallen through for various reasons, including unexpected events that tapped state budgets. Costs for the final exhibit design started out at about $2.5 million, then it was $2.8 million, then it was $3 million-something, and it crept up steadily as year after frustrating year flew past without securing the funds to finish the museum.

The final exhibit design was approved earlier this year and is sitting in the state construction office, ready to go as soon as the funds are in hand, Couch said.

Despite its limited displays, the museum’s ship-like architectural design is impressive, and the available displays are engaging. In fact, the museum is only growing in popularity, attracting about 90,000 visitors annually, about 23,000 Facebook followers, plus more on other online sites, including its website. 

Since 2008, the museum’s nonprofit Friends group has provided $834,791 for facility maintenance and repair, exhibitions, collection, acquisitions and conservation and educational programs, according to the museum.

Hundreds of artifacts, many salvaged from shipwrecks or donated by locals, are stored safely in climate-controlled storage in back of the museum, including donations of 55 rare coins, two of which go back to the time of Ptolemy IV around 221 B.C., collected on Hatteras beaches by a dedicated beachcomber; artifacts salvaged off the U-85 by diver Jim Bunch; and an intact windlass found after Hurricane Irene in Rodanthe near where the Priscilla is believed to have wrecked in 1894. Artifacts are also being held in National Park Service facilities on Roanoke Island and in Florida.

Many islanders —descendants of shipwreck survivors from generations back, members of Coast Guard, fishing or United States Life-Saving Service families, or just folks who found a piece of lighthouse lens when they were teenagers   —- have promised to donate their stashed memorabilia or artifacts to the museum once the exhibit plan is completed, Couch said.

The museum is also planning to create an exhibit centered on telling the story of the Carroll A. Deering, better known as the famous “ghost ship,” which was a five-masted schooner that ran aground in 1921 off Cape Hatteras. No sign of the crew was ever found.

Once installed, the exhibit is designed to empower the artifacts to help tell the human story of the Outer Banks’ unusually rich relationship to the sea, Couch said.  Whether heart-warming or heart-rending, they’re all dramatic, and they’re all worth telling — and knowing.

“It’s state pride,” Couch said. “It’s just pride in understanding our significance in maritime history. It’s key to North Carolina getting its story out there.”

This report has been updated to clarify the boundaries of the shellfish moratorium in New Hanover County.

House budget committees rev back up this week starting with an overview of spending proposed in the newly minted budget sent from the other side of the Legislative Building.

After a lengthy debate Thursday, the state Senate passed its version of the two-year biennial budget last week in a 32-18 vote.

The budget spends roughly $25.7 billion in the fiscal year starting June 30 and $26.7 billion the following year. After a protracted negotiation with House leaders on the overall total, the Senate’s bill is more than a month behind the typical schedule.

House leaders expect to wrap up work on their budget plan later in July.

Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, who chairs the House Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources appropriations subcommittee said Friday she expects committee work to be completed within a couple of weeks after the legislature returns from its July Fourth break.

McElraft said the plan should be voted on by the end of the month. After that, the two chambers will have to reach a compromise on their differences before sending a final version to Gov. Roy Cooper, who has already raised concerns about elements likely to be in a final version. 

North Carolina hasn’t had a full budget enacted and signed since 2018. Cooper vetoed the last two-year budget in 2019 and state agencies and operations have been funded through a series of targeted, mini-budgets and an automatic continuing budget law that maintains funding at the previous year’s levels.

Another veto fight is expected, at least according Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who all but said as much in a news conference last week.

“Well, we’ll see where things are as far as the governor is concerned. This is a little facetious, but I’m sure that the governor is not going to veto this budget, because this is not going to be the final budget,” Berger said Monday of the Senate plan. “We will see what happens once we see what the House does and then we’ll have further conversations with both the House and the executive branch.”

Fisheries in focus

Next year marks the 25^th anniversary of the state’s landmark Fisheries Reform Act of 1997 and the 50^th anniversary of the Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, and the legislature is using the milestones to launch a comprehensive review of its coastal and marine fisheries.

The Senate budget plan provides $1 million to the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory to produce an analysis of trends in state fisheries over the last few decades and to develop policy recommendations to better manage the overall health and viability of the fisheries and their habitats. Fisheries listed for the studies include bay scallop, blue crab, eastern oyster, estuarine striped bass, hard clam, kingfish, red drum, river herring, sheepshead, shrimp, southern flounder, spotted seatrout and striped mullet.

The study is due by Dec. 31, 2022.

The Senate budget also adds two new positions for management and technical work to handle the expansion of the shellfish lease program and allocates additional costs for the northern shellfish lab. Shellfish growers would also see a new loan program through the North Carolina Rural Center aimed at providing working capital and equipment for small, new or existing shellfish operations.

The Senate plan extends indefinitely a moratorium on shellfish leases in New Hanover and Carteret counties enacted in 2019. In New Hanover County, the moratorium would be for waters from the Wrightsville Beach drawbridge through Masonboro Inlet to the mouth of Snows Cut, and in Bogue Sound in Carteret County from the U.S. 70 high-rise bridge in Morehead City to the Emerald Isle bridge.

The moratorium was scheduled to expire on July 1. It was established in the legislation  setting up the state’s new water column and bottom leasing program. There’s a strong interest in shellfish leasing in the areas, but they are also among the spots on the coast with potential for conflicts with fishing, recreation and tourism uses.

Also in the Senate budget is $1 million for a voluntary commercial fishing license buyback program aimed at “retiring” underutilized licenses. The plan requires the Division of Marine Fisheries to set up a three-year buyback program starting with a report on its plans due in April 2022.

The licenses would be retired and not revert to the pool of available licenses. Any holder who sells their license would not be eligible for a commercial fishing license for three years after the sale.

Ferry fund established

The state’s ferry service would get its own dedicated capital fund, one of several new funds set up in the Senate budget.

Currently, the cost of new vessels and maintaining the ferry fleet comes out of the state Highway Fund, the state’s main transportation funding vehicle.

The new Ferry Capital Special Fund would be separate from the Highway Fund and tolls collected within the system would flow directly into it as would receipts from work at the state shipyard at Manns Harbor.

The fund is mainly for acquisition and maintenance costs for the ferry fleet as well as tugs, barges and dredges. Under the Senate plan about $9.6 million in vessel replacement funds and $14 million in accumulated fare revenue and state support will be transferred to the new fund. The state would also continue an additional $2.5 million appropriation annually for vessels and maintenance.

The budget also spends more than $4 million to complete two vessels, with $718,090 to finish the M/V Salvo, a river class ferry to replace the M/V Chicamocomico, and $3,450,807 budgeted for the completion of the M/V Avon, a river class ferry that will replace the M/V Kinnakeet on the Hatteras-Ocracoke route in 2022.

RALEIGH — A temporary impasse in the North Carolina General Assembly over the overall spending total for a fresh state budget ended last week, but don’t expect to see a final product anytime soon.

House and Senate negotiators settled on a $25.7 billion budget ceiling for the 2021-22 fiscal year, which starts on July 1, and $26.7 billion for 2022. The budget targets represent a 3.45% increase in spending the first year and 3.65% in the second year.

The total does not include debt service for capital projects, which will come out of a new State Capital and Infrastructure Fund.

In a joint statement, Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said they intend to direct $4.2 billion in spending through the new fund “to support critical needs across the state, including several transformational projects.”

Although the exact numbers by department have yet to be spelled out, Berger and Moore said the budget agreement also includes significant tax reductions and the replenishment of the state’s “rainy-day” fund.

“As we work out the details of the budget, we intend to fulfill our commitment to balance the budget while saving for future needs and cutting taxes for the vast majority of residents,” they said in the statement released Tuesday.

The two sides have been at odds over total spending, so much so that House budget committees began meeting to move forward with its own version and not wait for the Senate, which was supposed to release its plan first this year.

The House effort barely got rolling before the announcement of the agreement.

Senate leaders plan to roll out their budget in about a week with a final round of votes likely to come ahead of the legislature’s weeklong break in early July.

The House then takes up its version. A rough timetable set out by legislative leaders last week, predicts a final legislative deal coming in August.

Less certain is what happens after that.

In a press conference Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper, who released his budget proposal in April, said he expects to see his priorities reflected in a final deal. Although the legislature’s agreement did not include Medicaid expansion, a major sticking point in 2019, Cooper said he would continue to push for it in negotiations.

Cooper also called for a much more ambitious bond program than what’s envisioned for the new capital and infrastructure fund.

The last comprehensive two-year budget to become law was passed in 2017 over Cooper’s veto, as was the 2018 budget. But later that second year, Democrats gained enough seats in both chambers to sustain a Cooper veto and in 2019 talks between the legislature and the governor ended in a stalemate.

Since then, state government has been funded through the combination of an automatic spending law that maintains current spending levels and a series of consensus “mini-budgets” for various departments and programs.

This year, with no spending plan likely to be in place by the end of the fiscal year, the automatic spending law will kick in July 1.

Ferry bill sails through

While the budget churns forward, legislators are working their way through a stack of legislation moved in last month’s crossover marathon.

Just before adjourning for the week, the Senate in a 47-0 vote gave its final approval for legislation authorizing the Department of Transportation to lease and operate the Hatteras-Ocracoke passenger ferry.

The bill, which had passed the House the day before in a vote of 106-2, allocates $700,000 from the State Highway Fund for a lease through Aug. 15 and includes an opt-out provision if the state can put a new state-owned boat into operation sooner.

On Friday, the Ocracoke Observer reported that construction of the new state-owned boat, a 92-foot catamaran, had been completed and was undergoing trials.

The boat was originally due to be completed in 2018, but inspections of hull welds raised concerns and work was halted, leading to a protracted legal battle between the state and its contractor, US Workboats, formerly based in Hubert, in Onslow County.

A new contractor, boat repair specialists Waterline Systems, also based in Hubert, took over the $4 million project in 2020.

The boat is being tested in the water at the company’s shipyard in Hubert, NCDOT spokesman Tim Haas said Friday.

“It’s part of the process the builder goes through before it gets turned over to the Ferry Division, so I can’t put a date on when that will be completed. It will be named the Ocracoke Express,” Haas said.

As far as the leased ferry goes, Haas said nothing can happen until the bill becomes law. “Then we will work on completing the contract with the owner of the boat (SeaStreak Marine). After that, the boat will transit down here from New Jersey, then we have to perform required route verification and a ‘new to zone’ inspection before it can begin service.”

Haas said the Ferry Division has been making preparations all spring for passenger ferry service, so once the contract is signed and the testing completed, it should not take long before service would begin. “But again, none of that can start until the bill gets signed.”

Act II for Farm Act

The House will move forward on its review of Senate Bill 605, the Farm Act of 2021, and could vote on the bill as early as early as next week, despite objections to a provision putting all hog farm biogas operations under one general permit.

The Senate approved the bill on May 11 along party lines 29-21 and the provision is expected to lead to a similar conclusion in the House.

After passage in the Senate, environmental groups vowed to fight the biogas provision. In a statement after the vote, the North Carolina Sierra Club said the biogas plan would further entrench lagoon and spray field systems for hog waste.

Last week, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, said he supported the bill as is and would likely urge a vote on the bill during the committee’s next meeting. Dixon dismissed criticism of the biogas plan, saying it’s better than the system currently in place.

Trail bill on track

The House overwhelmingly approved a plan adding the East Coast Greenway to the state parks system’s trails. The greenway which runs through Atlantic Coast is a primarily inland route but includes “supplemental” routes along the coast as well as a section south of Wilmington through Brunswick County. Coastal trails included are South Tar River Greenway, Greenville; Jacksonville Rail-Trail, Jacksonville; Greenfield Lake Path, Wilmington; The Wilmington Riverwalk; Cross-City Greenway, Wilmington; Dismal Swamp Canal Trail; South Mills; Carolina Beach Island Greenway; Surf City Bridge Multi-Use Path; Fort Fisher Trail, Kure Beach; Southport to Fort Fisher Ferry; Emerald Path, Emerald Isle; and the South Tar River Greenway in Greenville.

RALEIGH — A broad array of provisions aimed at flood prevention and resilience continues to move forward in this year’s session of the North Carolina General Assembly.

Last week, a House committee approved the latest version of a long-term effort to address the growing risk of widespread flooding. Although driven by catastrophes like Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence, the scope of the legislation recognizes vulnerabilities to flooding throughout the state.

“This bipartisan measure reflects input from leaders across the entire state of North Carolina that have taken the brunt of a number of these storms,” House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, said Wednesday while introducing the latest iteration of the House efforts, House Bill 500, the Disaster Mitigation and Relief Act of 2021, to the House Environment Committee. “It’s my opinion that it’s time to address these challenges and be proactive in a comprehensive way. That’s why we’re focused on real solutions that we can protect homes livelihoods, communities and infrastructure.”

It’s evident, he said, that the state needs a comprehensive strategy to address flooding and resiliency.

The House legislation follows a set of provisions introduced in the Senate earlier in the session and a set of strategies proposed by Gov. Roy Cooper in his budget proposal in March.

At the heart of all three plans is an attempt to use what’s been learned through recent disasters along with advances in science and technology to get ahead of future disasters. 

Bell said the more than $290 million in new spending in the bill represents one of the largest investments to deal with flooding in the state’s history, but it’s intended to break a cycle of flooding and recovery that’s cost more than $3.5 billion spent in recent years.

Committee chair Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said that when the House first started looking at resiliency there wasn’t enough money to do what was needed. She said that now the state has enough in its rainy day funds to move forward.

“We finally have some money to put into resiliency, and to prevent these kinds of things from happening, instead of looking at fixing homes after it’s flooded,” McElraft said.

Bell co-chaired the House Select Committee on Disaster Relief, which was established in 2017 to track the recovery from Hurricane Matthew, then the costliest natural disaster in state history.

The select committee reviewed the long history of proposals for how to deal with riverine flooding, particularly along choke points in the Neuse River basin. Their work was interrupted and dramatically altered by Hurricane Florence in 2018, which dwarfed Matthew in rainfall, reexposed the extensive flooding vulnerabilities in eastern North Carolina and revealed new infrastructure and transportation faults.

As much as the major disasters in eastern North Carolina were an impetus for a flood mitigation and resilience strategy, the growing frequency of intense rain events and flooding in other parts of the state have given the effort an extra boost in the legislature.

Will McDow, who helped lead negotiations on the bill for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the bill, and ultimately, the flooding legislation that is likely to come out of the session and be signed by the governor, is a strong recognition across government that there’s a need and an opportunity to rev up resiliency efforts.

“This is something that both chambers and the governor recognize is a critical issue,” he said. “And so, you know when you get that level of consistency in recognition, it creates opportunities.”

Environmental Defense Fund and other environmental groups have supported both House and Senate bills partly because they both lean into the idea of leveraging natural lands.

“We appreciate the sponsors’ commitment to natural solutions as one tool in the toolbox to prepare our state for to make our state more prepared for floods,” Will Robinson, director of government relations for the Nature Conservancy in North Carolina, told House members last week.

‘Works in progress’

The bills in the works now are evolving and to become law will require a lot of negotiation and perhaps some luck, especially given the recent breakdown in budget discussions in Raleigh.

Bell called House Bill 500 “a working document” that will change as it moves through the process. Some or all of it could be folded into the budget or, if the legislature adopts another “mini-budget” system in lieu of an actual budget, be rolled into one or more standalone bills.

Here’s a breakdown of main provisions of the bill:

• Permanently establishes the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency and adds up to 19 new positions with responsibilities for statewide flood mitigation and resiliency.
• Allocates $20 million for a statewide flood resilience blueprint.
• Allocates $32 million for Neuse River buyouts, levee and railroad projects.
• Allocates $36.5 million for Lumber River buyouts, dam repairs, levee and railroad projects.
• Earmarks $5 million for Southport waterfront stabilization and $14 million for Boiling Springs Lake dam repairs.
• Establishes the state Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund and Transportation Infrastructure Resiliency Fund with an initial $40 million appropriation for grants.
• Adds $30 million to the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund for living shorelines, oyster reefs and marsh restoration.
• Funds planning grants and four new positions at the Division of Coastal Management for the Resilient Coastal Communities program.
• Adds $20 million to the state’s Land and Water Fund for restoration of floodplains and wetlands to increase their capacity to store water and reduce flooding.
• Allocates $30 million to the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Mitigation Services to create a pilot program to address chronic flooding along Stoney Creek in Wayne County and other flood mitigation projects.

House Bill 500 is expected to be taken up next by the House Appropriations Committee, but so far no hearings have been scheduled.

The appropriation for North Carolina’s parks and clean water trust funds would jump to levels not seen in a decade and a surge of money for flood mitigation projects are key features of Gov. Roy Cooper’s biennial budget proposal.

Cooper and State Budget Director Charles Perusse announced Wednesday the details of the $27.3 billion plan for 2021-22 and $28.7 billion plan for 2022-23.

It reflects a growing, albeit temporary, state budget surplus, in part to collections running higher than expectations and in part due to changes from last year’s tax schedule that pushed a substantial amount of revenues into the new fiscal year.

Although some previous federal aid is in the mix, Cooper’s budget does not include recently approved federal funding from the American Rescue Plan, which he said Wednesday would come later in a separate proposal.

The budget plan includes a pay raise for teachers and principals averaging 10%, a roughly 7.5% raise and bonuses for all school personnel and a 5% raise for state employees. State retirees would receive a 2% bonus each year and a recurring 2% cost-of-living adjustment.

With much of the available surplus deemed nonrecurring or one-time money, this year, budget writers in both the administration and the legislature are tasked with finding ways to spend it without creating ongoing expenses.

Cooper has proposed an extensive series of projects along with a $4.7 billion bond proposal to build out and fix state infrastructure. The bond proposal, which includes money for K-12, university and community college construction and repair; water and sewer infrastructure; and parks, museums and aquariums, would go to the voters in November.

Parks, Clean Water Funds

Cooper wants to see an additional $220 million flow into the state’s two main conservation funds over the next biennium.

The state’s Land and Water Trust Fund, which incorporates the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and other related state trust funds, would receive $49 million in each year of the governor’s budget with $30 million going toward clean water grants and $19 million each year targeted “to increase water storage capacity and decrease future flood risk for communities impacted by recent disasters.”

The trust fund hasn’t been funded at those levels since 2009. The state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund would receive $75 million each year to support state and local parks and beach access. State parks would also get $10 million to upgrade paved and unpaved trails, which have been heavily used during the pandemic.

State Department of Natural and Cultural Resources spokesperson Michele Walker said the funds will help with needed clean water and parks projects and expand the heavily used state parks trails system.

“We believe these investments will improve public health, stimulate economic growth, advance diversity, equity and inclusion, and build resiliency in our communities,” Walker said Thursday.

The governor’s budget also includes $56 million for additional flood-mitigation projects, including more focused buyouts.

With some bills to fund flooding projects already introduced this year in the legislature, resilience and flood mitigation, particularly in eastern North Carolina, are early areas of consensus between the governor and the legislature in the budget process.

House and Senate budget committees are expected to delve deeper into plans for a comprehensive flood mitigation program as the budget works its way through both chambers.

Walker said the Land and Water Fund, or LWF, and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, or PARTF, would work together on some of the projects being considered.

“The proposed floodplain buyout program would allow LWF to acquire and restore high-priority floodplains to increase water storage capacity and decrease future flood risk for communities impacted by these recent disasters. PARTF funds could be used to convert these reclaimed floodplains into active recreational assets, such as parks or trails,” she said.

Office of State Budget and Management spokesperson Marcia Evans said the two funds haven’t been at that level since 2011. She said the rationale for the increases are that parks and clean water projects are cost-effective and have an impact throughout the state.

“Use of parks and trails has risen dramatically since the start of the pandemic and we want to continue to support and encourage safe, outdoor recreation,” she said. “But the benefits go beyond recreational uses because land purchases and improvements can also improve resiliency. A portion of the funds are set aside for floodplain buyouts—moving people and businesses out of the floodplain—and stream restoration. This reduces flooding and loss during natural disasters.”

The governor’s plan also provides more than $79 million over the next two years for navigation, water management, flood mitigation and beach nourishment matching money for more than $220 million in federal funds.

Other clean water initiatives in Cooper’s plan include an additional $9 million to buyout hog farms still remaining in the the 100-year floodplain.

The state’s Department of Environmental Quality would receive additional funding to deal with permitting backlogs and implement a streamlined permitting system as well as money for new clean energy programs for schools and communities.

Cooper also wants to hire 26 new chemists, engineers and hydrogeologists to deal with emerging compounds and provide clean drinking water to communities affected by them.

New positions in the Division of Coastal Management budget includes a coastal resilience coordinator to assist local resiliency planning and a “Southern Sites” manager to manage the new Bird Island Coastal Reserve, the state’s southernmost barrier island.

Cassie Gavin, director of government affairs with the North Carolina Sierra Club, said the budget includes several notable initiatives like the hog farm buyout funds as well as $24 million in local clean energy grants.

“We’re excited to see that the Governor’s budget shows a strong commitment to conservation, clean energy and resilience,” Gavin said Thursday in an email.

Road ahead

The governor’s traditional first volley in the budget process comes after two years of often bitter, partisan battles over spending that left the state without a formal, two-year budget agreement since the last one was adopted in 2018.

Since 2019, state government has been funded through a series of supplemental funding bills and an automatic budget backstop that keeps funding at prior levels.

While Cooper and legislative leadership are sure to clash over the budget, the surge of money could make reaching an agreement easier.

Cooper and Perusse said they do not expect the same kind of standoff over this year’s plan.

“Unlike, the last budget cycle we had, I’ve had numerous conversations with both Republican and Democratic leadership,” Cooper said. “And one thing we agreed on is that, first the people of North Carolina elected us again. So, we’re back in the same situation that we were, and we owe it to them to do the best that we can to find a path forward.”

Coastal provisions

Other coastal-related items in the budget include the following:

• $9.9 million for the University of North Carolina Wilmington Coastal Marine Studies for building renovations.
• $500,000 each year for resources to excavate and conserve artifacts from the 1718 shipwreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
• A new sea turtle assistance and rehabilitation center position at the Roanoke Island.
• Additional parks staffing for Hammocks Beach and Jockey’s Ridge state parks.
• A $7 million boost each year to the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division to enable more timely maintenance and $4.5 million over two years for shoreside infrastructure preservation and improvements.

North Carolina’s fiscal outlook reflects the hit expected by COVID-19, but overall the General Assembly starts its biennial budget process with a substantial cushion.

In a joint presentation Wednesday to House and Senate budget writers, analysts with the legislature’s Fiscal Research Division estimated that the state heads into fiscal 2021 with more than $4 billion in tax revenue coming in above what was expected. The state also starts with an unappropriated fund balance from last year of about $457 million.

Despite that rosy short-term outlook, Barry Boardman, chief economist for the North Carolina General Assembly, warned legislators Wednesday that uncertainty over the course of the coronavirus pandemic and continued signs of a so-called K-shaped recovery, in which some sectors grow while others lag, present challenges.

Boardman said the diversity of the state’s economy helped keep state revenues up, but the impact of job losses and business closures in the service and hospitality sectors would continue to be felt for some time. He said that it’s one reason the state’s economy will take longer to get back to where it was before the pandemic.

“Those parts of the economy that have lost businesses and lost jobs, or have experienced long-term unemployment, all of those are going to take longer to build back,” Boardman said. “So that’s why in our forecast, we don’t see us returning to a fully recovered economy until at least the middle of next year, and possibly into the early part of 2023.”

With the trajectory of the pandemic hard to predict and its impact on revenue and key budget drivers like public school and community college enrollment difficult to pin down, any spending plan this year is a moving target.

Analyst Jennifer Hoffman said that, by now in a normal budget cycle, the estimates of school enrollment increases and their costs would be available. This year, they’re not because of uncertainty around the pandemic and school reopenings and whether an anticipated early drop in enrollments will persist into the next year. Legislators will also have to decide whether to hold school systems harmless as they did last year if enrollment falls and per-pupil aid drops.

The legislature starts the budget process after two years without a full state budget. Legislative leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper failed to reach agreement after Cooper vetoed a budget passed in June 2019.

Since then, state agencies have been funded through an automatic budget provision passed in 2016 to avoid government shutdowns and a series of mini-budgets and standalone funding bills.

The legislature passed 21 separate funding bills in the 2019 session and 32 bills with appropriations and revenue in 2020.

If passed and signed into law, the 2020-22 budget would be the state’s first comprehensive budget passed since 2017.

Hanig to chair new coastal committee

Rep. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, will chair a new House committee set up to focus specifically on issues around fisheries and marine resources.

Hanig said he worked with House Speaker Tim Moore to pull together a group of legislators with expertise and interest in the often-complicated set of marine issues.

Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow, is vice chair of the committee. Other members include Reps. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons, D-Guilford; Ed Goodwin, R-Chowan; Wesley Harris, D-Mecklenburg; Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford; Zack Hawkins, D-Durham; Frank Iler, R-Brunswick; Keith Kidwell, R-Beaufort; David Rogers, R-Rutherford; Carson Smith, R-Pender; Brian Turner, D-Buncombe; and Larry Yarborough, R-Person.

Hanig said he expected the committee to hold its first meeting in about two weeks.

Coastal legislators file museum bills

Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, has filed H87, a bill to provide $3 million for the Maritime Heritage Foundation of Beaufort to begin advance planning for the proposed North Carolina Maritime Museum at Gallants Channel. The funds would go for a master plan for the 25-acre site, hiring an architect to design the museum and a project manager, as well as infrastructure and waterfront upgrades.

McElraft and Onslow County Republican Reps. George Cleveland and Phil Shepard are also among the sponsors of legislation that would provide $26 million for the Carolina Museum of The Marine and Civic Institute, a proposed 40,000-square-foot facility in Onslow County with exhibits on Marine Corps history, as well as theaters and classrooms. Sens. Michael Larzarra, R-Onslow, and Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, have filed a similar bill in the Senate.

Sen. Norm Sanderson has filed a bill calling for a $600,000 appropriation to fund construction of a new garden house at Tryon Palace.

Another local bill filed this session by northeastern legislators Hanig and Sen. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, would add Southern Shores to the list of municipalities able to use eminent domain to access areas for beach nourishment projects.

The town has scheduled a public hearing to consider the establishment of two Municipal Service Districts as part of its beach erosion, flood and hurricane protection project. A report on the plan, which is estimated to cost between $14-16 million is available at the town website.

Deadlines for filing local bills for this year’s session in the House is March 25 and March 11 in the Senate.

RALEIGH – Medicaid cuts and pay raises for teachers generated most of the headlines last week, but a fast-moving budget proposal by the N.C. Senate contains, like all budget bills, numerous provisions that change environmental laws or policy.

Among the key environmental provisions, sections of the bill contain money for inlet dredging, monitoring the now-infamous coal ash ponds and for what would be the most peculiar park in the state.

Under the Senate budget, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, or DENR, would get $8 million to cover the cost of monitoring coal-ash ponds. Almost double that amount would be set aside to buy land at Oregon Inlet in Dare County for a new state park that could feature jetties to stabilize the notoriously unstable Oregon Inlet.

The Senate passed its $21.1 billion budget plan early Saturday morning after heated debate over cuts to state Medicaid programs and how to pay for teacher and state employees’ raises. The budget now moves to the N.C. House.

A State Park for Jetties?

The National Park Service would have to sell some of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to the state for a park for jetties at Oregon Inlet. Photo: National Park Service

In all, roughly $15 million is set aside in the Senate budget to acquire Oregon Inlet and nearby land that’s now part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. The inlet, which separates Bodie and Hatteras islands on the Outer Banks, has always been difficult to keep open for safe navigation, but it has becoming increasingly more dangerous in recent years. Its channel was all but unnavigable much of this year. If it owned the land on either side of the inlet, the state could then presumably take steps to stabilize the inlet, including the construction of long-sought jetties.

The budget bill established a new fund under DENR that would cover land purchases – assuming the federal government wants to sell chunks of its park and refuge. The fund would also pay for dredging the inlet and for private lawyers to handle the litigation that would likely arise from all of this.

A little less than half of the $15 million would come from an existing fund that the N.C. Department of Commerce uses for industrial development and from reserve money set aside by the state Office of Management and Budget for land purchases.

Money unspent or unencumbered by June 30, 2015, would revert to the state’s General Fund.

The budget also authorizes the state to swap land with the federal government as part of any agreement. State-owned land adjacent to or within 100 miles of federal land may be exchanged for the new park.

All of this grew out of the Oregon Inlet Land Acquisition Task Force, an inter-agency study group mandated by the legislature last year. The task force issued a report May 1, calling for a purchase or land swap of the inlet and nearby land.

Sen. Harry Brown

Gov. Pat McCrory included $500,000 in his budget to implement the task force’s recommendations and Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, introduced a bill last month proposing $15 million in funding for a new state park at the inlet.

Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onlsow, the Senate majority leader and one of the chamber’s chief budget writers, said the funding is a commitment to move ahead should negotiations with federal officials prove successful.

“I think we are committed to doing what we can to address the Oregon Inlet issue,” Brown said. He said he thinks there is support in the legislature to set aside funding in the event of a deal, but that much of what happens depends on the federal pieces falling into place.

“As we continue to negotiate with them, I think that will dictate what we can do as a state,” he said. “We’re continuing to talk with them. We’re putting money in place to take care of Oregon Inlet.”

Another provision in the budget bill, mirrors language in a new Senate regulatory overhaul bill that grants the governor authority to bypass environmental permitting to repair and replace bridges and roads on the coast in the event of a declared emergency.

The bill also charges the state Department of Transportation to identify an Outer Banks Transportation Corridor by Nov. 30 and requires the N.C. Department of Administration to begin condemnation proceedings “on all federally owned properties that are necessary to manage existing and future transportation corridors on the Outer Banks.”

Dredging Shallow Inlets

Brown also said he thinks the budget represents a new phase in funding to dredge the state’s shallow inlets. Brown tussled with inland legislators last year over an increase in boating registration fees that went to funds to dredge those inlets.

The Senate budget redirects $500,000 of that money to the state Wildlife Commission to reduce hydrilla, a noxious weed, at Lake Waccamaw and other inland lakes, a compromise Brown said he worked out to keep the fund intact.

“A lot of folks who use boats on lakes had some concerns,” he said. “I think this is a compromise to address the weed issue for them and for those lakes.”

In all, the budget includes roughly $7 million in funds for inlet dredging, which Brown said will amount to $12 million when federal matches are added.

“I think we’re covered and I’m committed to monitor that piece closely,” he said.

DENR and Coal Ash

A state lab in Nags Head that tests for fecal coliform bacteria in shellfish waters would be closed under the state Senate budget plan. Photo: Utah State University

After years of declining funding, the state’s main environmental regulator will see an increase of more than $8 million, the bulk of which will pay for close to two dozen new employees dedicated to regulating coal-ash ponds and to whatever mediation plans the legislature settles on this session.

Under the plan, the bulk of the new positions will go to DENR’s Division of Water Resources  to inspect the ponds, monitor groundwater and develop plans to correct or close the 14 major coal-ash sites, all current or former coal-fired power plants now owned by Duke Energy. These include Sutton Power Plant near Wilmington, which is one of four sites named as a priority for cleanup.

Other new positions under the coal-ash plan would include two new positions to address stormwater permitting, inspection and compliance; two new positions in the N.C. Division of Waste Management to handle permitting of industrial landfills for the ash; five new positions dedicated to dam inspection and safety evaluations at the ash ponds; and up to six new “reserve” positions in the secretary’s office to support management of the coal ash plan. In all, the Senate proposal anticipates annual cost for the coal-ash program at $1.75 million.

To pay for the increase, DENR’s budget is cut elsewhere by eliminating about 14 positions. About half are currently vacant.

Other DENR cuts include:

• Closure of the Museum of Forestry in Whiteville for a savings of $391,117
• Closure of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries office in Nags Head and elimination of three positions in the division’s section that monitors water quality for shellfish consumption and swimming for a savings of $148,240
• Reduction of $1.4 million from the Drinking Water Revolving Fund

The Bullet List

Other coastal items in the Senate proposal budget would:

• Provide $3 million for hull repairs to the USS North Carolina
• Provide $150,000 in start-up money for habitat mapping and data collection for a new state oyster sanctuary in Pamlico Sound
• Direct a study of state shellfish leasing and franchise programs, including study of best practices and the effect of regulations on the private mariculture industry
• Direct a study on whether a private party should manage the state-owned marina at Carolina Beach State Park
• Expand the availability of grants from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to cultural resources and adds the secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources to the fund’s advisory council
• Raise the cost of a commercial fishing licenses from $250 to $400, retired commercial fishing licenses from $125 to $200 and shellfish licenses from $31.25 to $50
• Create a commercial fishing resource fund paid for in part by the new licenses fees. The fund would be administered by representatives of the N.C. Fisheries Association, N.C. Watermen United, Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association, Albemarle Fishermen’s Association, Carteret County Fishermen’s Association and the Brunswick County Fishermen’s Association.
• Reduce annual fees for commercial fishing vessel registrations
• Prevent the state from entering into joint enforcement agreements with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

First of two parts

RALEIGH — The term “red tape” has its origins in the centuries old practice of tying up legal documents in red ribbon. For just about as long, “cutting through red tape” has been synonymous with overcoming burdensome rules and bureaucracy.

But one person’s burden is often another’s protection, and as much as the cutting through analogy makes it sound easy, striking the balance between the two is an increasingly complicated process. North Carolina’s recent push to “reform” its regulations and rule-making processes is proving especially so.

Still, with initiatives by both the administrative and legislative branches in full swing, the state is poised for sweeping changes in how it approaches regulation, especially its environmental protections. These changes, driven by legislation passed last year, have yet to have a major impact on coastal rules but in the long run have the potential to significantly reshape current policies.

A Bit of History

Former state senator Wendell Murphy supported the old Hardison Amendments.

During last year’s debate on the state budget, there was considerable outcry over a provision that would have limited state environmental protections to federal standards. Opponents said the change would take us back to the days of the Hardison Amendments, a reference to state senator Harold “Bull” Hardison, a Lenoir County Democrat, who in the 1970s and ‘80s championed a series of amendments to limit state air and water quality protections to federal standards. Hardison and his supporters, including then state senator and future hog magnate Wendell Murphy, managed to hold sway until the amendments were repealed in 1991ushering in an era that saw the passage of key water quality and hazardous waste rules along with tougher air emission standards.

As the state adopted more rules as a result of policy initiatives and tightening federal requirements, the businesses, farmers and landowners pressed their case that the myriad of regulations were growing too complicated and too burdensome. In the past few years, as the economy slumped that argument began to win over a more policy makers and more voters.

In October 2010, Gov. Beverly Perdue launched an initiative to eliminate “outdated, unnecessary or vague” rules, improve rule-writing procedures and strengthen the review process for new rules. It covered every state entity that writes rules — from the Board of Cosmetology to the Coastal Resources Commission.

The following month’s legislative elections assured that when the N.C. General Assembly convened again both House and Senate would be in Republican hands and many of the people who had campaigned on a staunchly anti-regulation platform would ascend to leadership roles.

What the new GOP leadership termed “regulatory reform” was one of the first big initiatives of the new session. In a series of public hearings around the state early in the session it became clear that their desire to rewrite rules and regulations was on a fast track.

Dan Conrad of the N.C. Conservation Network outlined the path new rules must follow after passage of Senate Bill 781.

New Hardison Amendments

So as shocking as it was to many environmentalists that the budget included a provision that essentially rewrote the Hardison amendments into law, it wasn’t all that much of a surprise. And after both chambers voted to override Perdue’s veto of the budget, the provision temporarily became law.

Temporarily, because it was quickly repealed as part of Senate Bill 781, a much more comprehensive and complicated reform package. The bulk of the new bill, officially titled “An Act to Increase Regulatory Efficiency in Order to Balance Job Creation and Environmental Protection,” took effect on October 1and lays out the steps for revamping how rules and regulations are written.  Overseeing its implementation is the Joint Regulatory Reform Committee.

Like Perdue’s executive order, the bill tightens rule-making procedures and mandates a comprehensive review of rules in order to ferret out redundancy and inconsistencies. Unlike Perdue’s effort, the legislature required much more extensive studies of the cost of new rules to businesses, including an analysis of possible alternatives.

Most significantly, S781 added an extra focus on environmental rules and regulations set by the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources and all boards and commissions that enforce state and federal environmental regulations including the Environmental Management Commission, Marine Fisheries Commission, Coastal Resources Commission, Wildlife Resources Commission, Commission for Public Health, Sedimentation Control Commission, Mining Commission and the state Pesticide Board.

Sam Pearsall

By October 1, each of these were required to provide the new regulatory committee with a list of all permanent rules designating whether they were mandated by a federal regulation, analogous to one or neither.

When DENR’s 122-page report was released last fall it set off alarm bells among environmental advocates, who saw it as an indication of what protections might be at risk if the legislature were to start stripping out state-specific standards.

Sam Pearsall, director of the Southeast Land, Water and Wildlife Program for the Environmental Defense Fund, said at the time he was worried the document would become a kind of Christmas list for those legislators bent on jettisoning as many rules as possible.

“Everything is on the table,” he said.