MAJOR CHANGES PROPOSED TO STORMWATER
RULES FOR COASTAL AREAS
The State Environmental Management
Commission (EMC) has approved draft changes to the coastal stormwater
program that, if passed later this year as final rules, should
significantly improve the program's effectiveness in reducing
stormwater pollution, according to the N.C. Coastal Federation. A
comprehensive review undertaken by the EMC in 2005 showed that the
current program had failed to protect shellfish waters.
Stormwater runoff into our creeks and rivers is the primary cause of 90
percent of all contaminated shellfish beds. This is a complex
issue, with developers and homebuilders concerned with the potential
cost of implementing the new rules. For or against, you owe it to
yourself to keep a close watch on the rule-making process. A local
stormwater hearing was held at the Coastline Convention Center on
October 2, 2007. At the hearing, Executive Committee member Earla
Jean Pope read the following statement in support of the proposed
stormwater rule changes:
Cape Fear Group, Sierra Club Position on Proposed
Stormwater
Rule Revision:
The Cape
Fear Group, Sierra Club supports the proposed stronger stormwater rules
that
would apply to new development in the 20 coastal North Carolina
counties. Coastal water quality is a
matter of life
and health for humans and marine creatures.
Under previous stormwater rules, our coastal waters have become
unacceptably subject to stormwater pollution.
In addition to the proposed rule changes, we support a 50 foot
vegetated
buffer along the water’s edge. We also
support a provision that would require that developers exclude natural
marshes
and wetlands when calculating the percentage of proposed paved surface
in their
projects.
Cape Fear Group, Sierra Club
October 2, 2007
CAPE FEAR GROUP CONSERVATION COMMITTEE NEEDS YOU
If you are interested in conservation issues
affecting the Cape Fear area, please call Janice Wilson at
313-0498 to become a member of the Cape Fear
Group Conservation Committee. We don't have a regular scheduled
meeting time and do most of our communications by e-mail.