Legislation to strip state protections away from much of North Carolina’s wetlands is headed to the Governor’s office now. It must be stopped.

Senate Bill (SB) 582, a so-called “Farm Act,” contains the most environmentally destructive retreat from established clean water protections in North Carolina history. Safeguards in place for generations will be stripped away, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands which now protect clean drinking water, fisheries, and wildlife, and safeguard vulnerable communities from flooding.
Farmers will not benefit. In fact, agriculture will suffer as development sprawls into the most sensitive areas. The loss of green lands both inside towns and cities and in the countryside will represent the worst possible changes for a rapidly heating planet and a state already losing its farmland and forests at an alarming pace.

SB 582 must be vetoed by the governor, and that veto upheld by the legislature, or North Carolinians will see a march of environmentally catastrophic results which are likely irreparable. The North Carolina League of Conservation Voters (NCLCV) has concluded that this vote represents an environmental red line, which legislators who wish to be considered friends of the environment in future election cycles must be strongly advised not to cross.

This is not a political calculation. It’s based on a scientific understanding of how wetlands protect our environment and communities, and a legal understanding of how the change in clean water law buried in SB 582 strips protections away from millions of acres of wetlands in North Carolina.

One technical legal change on a single page of this 28-page bill removes from state regulation all wetlands which are not included in the federal definition of “waters of the United States.” Combined with the recent catastrophic US Supreme Court decision eliminating that federal jurisdiction over streams and wetlands without a “continuous surface connection” to “navigable” waters, SB 582 contains the trigger for massive loss of clean waters in our state.

“It is hard to describe how harmful this bill is to North Carolina’s water quality, wildlife, fisheries and communities,” said Mary Maclean Asbill, director of the North Carolina offices of the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). As the SELC statement explains, wetlands act like natural sponges that absorb flood waters, lowering flood levels and slowing the rise of waters downstream—a life-saving combination. A one-acre wetland can typically store about one million gallons of water, so when developers and industry destroy wetlands, communities lose flood protection. In addition, in the southeastern United States, nearly all of the commercial catch and over half of the recreational catch are fish and shellfish that depend on wetlands.

On a more local scale, local fishing and swimming waters and community water supplies across our state will suffer from the same loss of clean water quality, and neighborhoods will be stripped of their natural protections against rapid and recurring flooding.

“Protecting wetlands protects our communities,” added Geoff Gisler, SELC program director. “By eliminating laws that have been in place for years, the legislature puts wetlands and our communities in harm’s way. This bill is the single most destructive action taken in North Carolina in decades—the legislature has abandoned our great natural resources, the rivers we depend on, and communities across the state.”

Time is running out to stop this catastrophe. Let Governor Cooper know now that SB 582 must be vetoed.