Citizens lobby legislators
for stronger protections
Raleigh—Today
North Carolinians converged on the General Assembly with one thing on their
mind—clean water. As part of the 6th annual Clean Water Lobby Day, citizens
from across the state are urging legislators to enact protections against the
number one threat to water quality in North
Carolina: polluted runoff. Polluted runoff is a leading cause of
impairment in 40% of North Carolina’s
impaired waterways. This session, legislators have the opportunity to protect
rivers and streams across the state from the ill effects of uncontrolled
runoff.
“North
Carolina is growing at a rapid rate and without regulations in place that
adequately capture new development, polluted runoff will continue to be the
leading cause of the state's water quality problems,” says Christine Wunsche,
Environment North Carolina’s Clean Water Attorney. “It is important that our
legislators act to strengthen polluted runoff rules now so that North Carolinians will continue to have
clean water as growth and development rates increase.”
Polluted runoff destroys water quality in our rivers, lakes and streams.
North Carolina has been losing
383 acres of land to development a day. This development is not confined to our
cities, it is also happening throughout our counties. As North Carolina continues to
grow and develop, it is important that polluted runoff from new development is
controlled in all of the state’s rapidly growing areas. As development booms
along the coast, the need to protect our coastal waters from polluted runoff also
becomes more urgent.
Jim Stephenson, policy director for the
NC Coastal Federation, says, "The existing state stormwater program fails
to protect standards for shellfish waters and operates in violation of the
federal Clean Water Act. The legislature has a unique opportunity to create
a NPDES stormwater program that truly protects shellfish waters."
Several
pieces of legislation have been introduced concerning polluted runoff. Two
bills would disapprove strong runoff controls, leaving ineffective rules in
place and putting our waters at risk. In addition to opposing these disapproval
bills, citizens lobbying today are asking legislators to support bills enacting
stronger runoff protections. To encourage legislators to make the right choice,
participants are distributing excerpts from Environment North Carolina’s report
released today, “Polluted Runoff in North Carolina: The effect of polluted
runoff on North Carolina's waters." The report details the devastating
impacts of polluted runoff and examines ways runoff regulations could be
improved, including provisions for protecting coastal water and expanding the
coverage area of polluted runoff rules, both of which are found in bills now
before legislators.
The report recommends expanding runoff controls so that pollution from
new development is controlled not only within municipalities, but also within
the 33 counties considered rapidly growing by the EPA. Beyond expanding the
area of coverage, the report also highlights the need to strengthen protections
for our coastal waters, recommending lowering the threshold at which runoff
controls are required around shellfishing waters.
Last November, after five years of negotiation, the
Rules Review Commission approved a set of compromise stormwater rules issued by
the Environmental Management Commission (EMC).
These rules would replace a temporary bill enacted by the General
Assembly in 2004, while the EMC rules were caught up in litigation. The EMC rules, which are much more protective
of water quality than the 2004 rules, are before legislators, as is a bill
including language from a stakeholder process examining the rules, giving legislators
another chance put stringent rules in place.
Clean Water Lobby Day participants also lobbied on two other key water
quality issues. Over 2 million North
Carolinians drink from private water wells, but these wells
are unprotected. Legislators are considering bills to improve well protections
in several ways, including approving funding for testing around known
groundwater contamination, and requiring water quality testing when new wells
are built or existing wells change owners. Another issue citizens educated
legislators about was the hazards of mercury pollution in our waterways,
including the dangers of eating mercury contaminated fish. Citizens asked
legislators to speak out against mercury pollution and encourage the state to
require coal fired power plants to achieve 90% mercury emissions reductions by
2010.
There are many water quality issues that need to be addressed, and as North Carolina continues to
grow, polluted runoff is an increasing threat to our waters. Polluted runoff
occurs because as rain hits paved surfaces, pollution such as oil, dirt,
fertilizer, and other toxins, are swept off of the surface and funneled
straight into our waters. It is important that legislators endorse
strengthening our existing polluted runoff rules—without more stringent
protections, the more North Carolina grows and
develops, the more our most prized waters will suffer.
