Clean Water in the News

MOREHEAD CITY — State environmental authorities are considering whether to extend stricter stormwater management rules — already adopted for counties such as Onslow — to other coastal areas.

And should the Environmental Management Commission go forward with the idea, Carteret County could see a big difference in development rules.

“I would think it’s safe to say that if they change the shellfish rules it could affect Carteret County more than anywhere else on the coast,” said Tom Reeder, Wetlands and Stormwater Branch manager for the N.C. Division of Water Quality.

About 50 percent of the land within Carteret County lies within one-half mile of shellfish waters, according to a presentation Reeder gave to the Marine Fisheries Commission last week. About 29 percent of the land in Pamlico County falls within those lines, according to the presentation

However, Reeder said the figures were computed to give the Marine Fisheries Commission a rough idea of what land could be affected and might not be accurate.

The Marine Fisheries Commission has asked the Environmental Management Commission to consider beefing up its coastal stormwater management regulations to prevent further degradation of shellfish waters.

A water quality committee to the Environmental Management Commission will look at that issue, and whether to expand the Phase II stormwater rules, at a Nov. 8 meeting in Raleigh, Reeder said.

This past summer the General Assembly approved a new set of stormwater control rules (Phase II) that will start next summer for counties that contain an area the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated as urbanized. Along the coast, those counties are Onslow, New Hanover and Brunswick.

The most stringent of the new rules affect development that disturbs an acre or more of land within one-half mile of shellfish waters. If the impervious surface of these projects exceeds 12 percent of the land being developed, the contractor will be required to construct engineered stormwater systems that control and treat at least the first 3½ inches of rain in a 24-hour period.

Currently, a contractor is required to install a stormwater system to collect the first 1½ inches of rainfall for development near shellfish waters if the impervious surfaces exceed 25 percent of the land being developed

The General Assembly also gave the Environmental Management Commission authority to add communities to the Phase II program either through its basinwide water quality management plan process or a community-instigated petition process.

Another possible course of action is for the Environmental Management Commission to amend existing stormwater rules for the coast so that they match the Phase II requirements for development near shellfish waters, Reeder said.