Committee opposes stormwater proposals

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

Opponents of proposed changes to the Coastal Stormwater Rules that affect 20 North Carolina coastal counties inched closer to gaining the Association’s support April 22. Members of the Environment Steering Committee voted unanimously to ask the Board of Directors to authorize Association opposition of the proposal and seek a legislative study of the impacts the rules will have.

The NCACC Board of Directors was to consider the matter at its May 14 meeting. The steering committee’s recommendation reflects what is proposed in a resolution by the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, which calls the changes “technically and economically infeasible, unnecessary and unfair.”

Carteret County Manager John Langdon, one of three county managers from coastal counties who spoke in opposition to the rules, said the proposals are modeled for high density urban areas and impose undue financial burden on the 20 coastal counties covered under the Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA), most of which are rural in nature.

“There is a false sense of crisis to the point where there is a sense that we have to rush something like this through,” he said. “This is not about controlling stormwater. It’s about doing away with low density development.”

Tom Reeder, director of the Division of Water Quality’s Wetlands and SH2O Branch, did not contest Langdon’s point, saying that DENR’s findings conclude that low density development is the root of the problem.

Among other changes, residential developments within a half mile of shellfish waters that are less than an acre in size and disturb more than 10,000 square feet would require a filtration or collection device, such as a rain garden or rain cisterns. According to Reeder, a rain garden could cost between $3,000 and $5,000. The current threshold is 1 acre.

Any site within a half-mile of shellfish waters that has a built upon area equal to or more than 12 percent of the site, or any site outside the half mile area with a built upon area equal to or more than 24 percent, is considered high density and requires an engineered stormwater system.

Carteret would be most affected by the proposed changes, as 50 percent of the county’s area is within a half mile of shellfish waters.

The rules go into effect Aug. 1 if not acted on by the General Assembly.

Committee members also endorsed delays in the implementation of new e-recycling and tipping tax laws that were included in S1492, the Solid Waste Act of 2007.

Legislation that passed in the waning days of the 2007 long session put the onus on computer equipment manufacturers to develop plans to provide for the recycling of their own and “orphan” discarded equipment, but provides no money for counties that volunteer to collect the equipment.

A draft of proposed changes to S1492 by the manufacturing industry still provides no funding for counties. It does remove collection for nonresidential uses, instead providing for individuals only.

The draft also removes the stipulation for manufacturers to plan for the collection of “orphan” equipment, defined as equipment for which a manufacturer cannot be identified or is no longer in business, and instead provides incentive for manufacturers to collect orphan equipment by requiring that the state, in considering bids for state contracts, provide “special preference” to companies that run programs to recover other manufacturers’ covered devices.

“I think it does water down what was already a pretty watery bill,” said Allen Hardison, executive director of the Coastal Regional Solid Waste Management Authority.

Hardison said he believes that an advance fee paid by the buyer – similar to charges applied to the sale of white goods such as refrigerators and washing machines – would be the way to go. NCACC Senior Assistant General Counsel Paul Meyer said that during the 2007 session there was discussion of an advance fee, but retailers, who said such a law would encourage buyers to purchase equipment via the Internet, opposed such a move and lobbied lawmakers to put the responsibility to plan for recycling on manufacturers.

Orange County Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson termed the bill’s exclusion of televisions an “insult.”

The committee voted to recommend that the effective date of the e-recycling law be bumped from July 1, 2009, to July 1, 2010.

Citing kinks in the system, members also voted to support a delay in the collection of a $2 per ton tipping tax from a July 1, 2008, effective date to Jan. 1, 2009.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s revised ozone standards, announced March 12, will throw 13 counties – Alexander, Davie, Durham, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Franklin, Granville, Guilford, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Union and Wake – into non-attainment status by 2010, according to George Bridgers, a chief meteorologist with the state’s Division of Air Quality (DAQ).

Bridgers addressed committee members on the revisions, which tighten the eight-hour ozone standard from 0.08 parts per million (PPM) to 0.075 PPM. The number of counties could climb if the EPA includes counties in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the designation boundaries, which will be set following a two-year non-attainment public process and negotiation between DAQ and the EPA.

Counties designated as non-attainment must conform their transportation plans to air quality plans, as well as perform a review on new industrial sources and major industrial expansions.

Committee members also heard from Jennifer Bumgarner, a policy advisor with the Office of the Governor, on Gov. Mike Easley’s recommended legislative and administrative changes for statewide drought response measures.