Press Releases

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management (DCM) has received more than $3 million dollars as one of 109 grants announced by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and NOAA in November. Additionally, DEQ’s Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) was awarded more than $89,000.

The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) will hold a specially called meeting Dec. 13 by web conference to discuss emergency and temporary rules. The meeting will be limited to this one agenda item. Members of the public may join by computer or phone.

 At DEQ's direction, Chemours is expanding sampling for PFAS contamination in private drinking water wells in New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus, and Pender counties.  More than 14,100 additional residences may now qualify for sampling. 

The State Water Infrastructure Authority will meet Tuesday, Dec. 12 at the Steve Troxler Agricultural Sciences Center in Raleigh. The public may attend the meeting in person or listen online or by phone.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources (DEMLR) will hold a public hearing beginning at 6 p.m. on Dec. 19, 2023, on the Martin Marietta application to modify a mining permit at Fuquay Quarry.

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries will hold a public hearing on proposed shellfish leases in Pender County at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31. The hearing will be held in-person at the Surf City Municipal Complex, Council Chambers, 214 Florence Way, Hampstead, and by WebEx.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality (DAQ) issued a renewal to Stericycle Inc. for its Title V air quality permit.Stericycle operates two incinerators for the disposal of hospital, medical and infectious waste at its facility in Haw River, Alamance County. A system of equipment on each incinerator controls emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and acid gases including carbon dioxide.

North Carolina Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board to Meet December 6The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board will meet on Wednesday, December 6 at 10:00 am.  The public is invited to attend the meeting in person or online. 

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its approval for imports of waste material containing GenX from a Chemours facility in the Netherlands to the Chemours Fayetteville Works Plant in North Carolina. The EPA notified Governor Cooper by letter today of the decision. Governor Cooper strongly urged the EPA to reverse the original approval in a November 3 letter to the EPA Administrator.

North Carolina’s Drought Management Advisory Council (DMAC) expanded the Extreme Drought (D3) designation to parts of four additional counties in southwestern North Carolina, and classified 10 more counties in the Piedmont as in Severe Drought.