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Executive Summary

North Carolina is experiencing steady population growth and ensuing loss of open space as forest and agricultural land is converted to residential and commercial development.

This urbanization is associated with strong negative impacts on water quality due to sharp increases in polluted runoff.

 As North Carolina works to meet the needs of its growing population, reining in polluted runoff will be a critical step in achieving the water quality goals of the Clean Water Act.

Runoff is already harming water quality

• Polluted runoff is a leading cause of impairment in 40% of waterways assessed as impaired in North Carolina.
• The most widespread impacts of polluted runoff have been documented in four river basins: Cape Fear, Catawba, Yadkin-Pee Dee and Neuse. However, with anticipated explosion of development in other parts of the state, many other basins are at risk.
• Runoff has already contributed to the closing of more than 350,000 acres of contaminated shellfish beds in North Carolina, and one billionfish dying in massive fish kills.

Runoff will get worse due to increasing development

At current rates, North Carolina has been losing 383 acres of land to development a day—an area equivalent to approximately 350 football fields. Over the next two decades, developers will pave over an estimated 2.4 million acres of open space. In the continued absence of strong programs to address runoff, North Carolina can anticipate:

Harm to Drinking Water supplies

• Lost drinking water supplies. Water that currently filters into the ground to recharge aquifers could become runoff. At current development rates, this could result in the diversion of 150 billion gallons of water from aquifers annually by 2025—an amount that could satisfy North Carolina’s freshwater needs for over 8 months.

• Contaminated drinking water supplies. Runoff bears toxic contaminants, sediment, and pathogens into surface waters, potentially contaminating surface water supplies and engendering high remediation costs to restore water quality.

Damage to Ecological Resources

• Degraded water quality in rivers, lakes and streams. Studies have shown that due to runoff pollution, water quality declines significantly when even 10% of a watershed is paved.
• Damage to fish and other wildlife dependent on healthy aquatic ecosystems, leading to economic losses due to harmed commercial and recreational fishing and shellfish harvesting.

Other Economic Impacts

• Fewer water-based recreation and tourism opportunities;
• Reduced aesthetic and market values of lakes, streams and coastal areas leading to decline in property values; and
• Increased risk of damage from flooding or drought conditions.

North Carolina Has Tools to Minimize Runoff Pollution

North Carolina need not consign its waterways to destruction by rampant runoff. A number of existing policies and policy improvements can go a long way toward reducing the amount of runoff pollution that new development will generate:

Maximize Natural Areas to Control Runoff

• Preserve as much open space as possible to allow natural filtration of rainwater.
• Create a permanent, dedicated source of funding to help the state reach its goal of preserving one million acres of open spaces by 2010.
• Provide tax incentives to encourage conservation easements.
• Encourage planning tools at the local government level to protect open space.
• Protect all waterways with mandatory buffer zones that help trap contaminants and slow down runoff, minimizing its impact on water quality.
• Establish strongest protections from runoff for pristine waterways by classifying them as Outstanding Resource Waters or High Quality Waters, which enables maximum land use standards in their watersheds.

Minimize Impervious Surface in New Development

• Promote development that creates less runoff pollution than traditional development through use of environmentally sound alternatives.
• Implement Structural Management Controls to Treat Polluted Runoff.  These physical controls may include systems to filter or slow down runoff.

Strengthen North Carolina’s Phase II Regulations

• Expand reach of the regulations so that they capture future growth instead of just development inside municipalities.
• Require post-construction polluted runoff controls for all developments statewide over an acre to ensure water quality is protected.
• Retain the Environmental Management Commission’s definition of “designation” so that more entities can be brought in under the Phase II rules as development increases and water quality suffers.

Ensure Adequate Staff and Funding for Programs that Control Runoff

• For all of the above policies, the state should ensure that adequate staff and funding are available to achieve the above objectives and enforce critical environmental programs already in place.
• Programs like the Erosion and Sedimentation Control program remain understaffed, and new programs like National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II have no express sources of funding dedicated to ensure they run smoothly.
• The state should fully fund the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.