Once again, North Carolina’s state environmental agency is refusing to comply with federal environmental requirements. This time, clean water is at jeopardy.
For the past three years, the appointed leadership of the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the NC Environmental Management Commission (EMC) have been at odds with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over how to determine when a water body is polluted seriously enough to merit a clean-up plan. The differences over water testing standards sound like a statistician’s nightmare, but the upshot is that the new standard now used by North Carolina makes it harder for a water body (stream, river, or lake) to qualify for the polluted (“impaired”) list and easier to take off the list. Previously, NC used the standard still used by the EPA nationally.
Ever since NC made the change, the EPA has chastised it with instructions to return to the stronger standard, and overruled the state on specific water bodies that the EPA has required be added to the impaired list. Last week, the EMC decided to continue the feud with a letter to the EPA once again arguing for its preferred weaker standard. (The EMC is the appointed oversight board for rulemaking by the DEQ. Members are appointed by the governor and the legislature.)
Those who have followed the patterns of the previous governor and his policy-making appointees will not be surprised to see another instance of them pitching for a weaker approach to environmental protection. We do hope that the start of the new administration will usher in a brighter day for the environment within the policy-making ranks of DEQ and the EMC.
In the meantime, there’s a way for concerned citizens to express your views within the policy-making process.
The NC Policy Watch article linked above notes that, “EPA is accepting public comments on its decision to add the 72 waterbody-pollutant combinations to the state’s 303d list. Deadline is Feb. 17. Submit comments via email to Marion Hopkins of the EPA’s Assessment, Listing and TMDL Section, Water Protection Division: hopkins.marion@epa.gov or via postal mail, US EPA, Atlanta Federal Center, 61 Forsyth St. SW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303.”
The full list and the recommended waterways to be listed and delisted can be found here.
The waterways added to the impaired list by the EPA over the DEQ/EMC objection are included in this notice, in Appendix B (pps. 41-44 of the document).
There is probably an “impaired” water (or more than one) near you. Check it out, and let regulators know why it’s important to you that it be cleaned up.
