North Carolina’s wetlands are in trouble

As reported in CIB last week, the catastrophic Supreme Court decision slashing the jurisdiction of the federal Clean Water Act substantially raised the stakes on a terrible provision buried in SB 582, the “North Carolina Farm Act of 2023.”

That provision removes all wetlands from state regulation which are not included in the federal definition of “waters of the United States.” This change would strip out much of North Carolina’s remaining wetlands from the umbrella of state protection. Combined with the catastrophic US Supreme Court decision eliminating federal jurisdiction over destruction of streams and wetlands without a “continuous surface connection” to “navigable” waters, this is a recipe for massive loss of clean waters in our state.
Despite that prospect, the NC House Agriculture Committee last week approved a proposed House committee substitute version of SB 582 which contains the same destructive version of the new state wetlands definition (Section 15, p. 23).

The committee majority acted over the objections of several Democratic members of the committee, who are concerned with this loss of wetlands critical to clean drinking water, fisheries, wildlife, and flood control in North Carolina.

The bill now waits in the NC House Committee on Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House—the powerful committee which acts on behalf of the House’s top Republican leaders to control the final content of all major legislation which is brought forward for a House floor vote.