Legislative Watch: DEQ Needs More Staff to Handle Workload

Leaders of the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) last week explained (again) to legislators how a shrunken budget and fewer enforcement staff are putting our air, water, and health at increased risk.

DEQ staff are being asked to do more every year, from researching closed landfill sites for risks, to evaluating new chemical threats to safe water quality (“emerging” pollutants). They told the legislative Environmental Review Commission last week they are unable to handle the mounting workload.

Some of the same legislators who were quick to question DEQ’s failure to provide more information on the closed landfills have repeatedly supporting cutting needed staff to do the work and shrinking regulatory authority to require information to be disclosed.

DEQ currently has 31 people involved in working on the GenX contamination alone. Yet the General Assembly this year refused repeated requests to add staff and resources to get that work done, or even restore the budget cuts to the department that have eliminated enforcement staff, analysts, and public education work.

Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) called the GenX situation a “wakeup call” and noted, “The emerging contaminant issue is so much bigger than GenX and much bigger than the Cape Fear River Basin. It’s a problem all over the state.”

It’s past time for the legislature to listen to voices like Harrison’s, and provide DEQ the support it needs to get its critical work done. Before the end of the year, let your representatives hear from you on the importance of protecting our state waters.

Next, the Alabama election last week was also a win for the environment >>