Press Releases

The Division of Water Resources has issued civil penalties totaling $34,520 for violation of permit conditions related to a May 2022 waste discharge at an animal operations facility in Wayne County.

On December 30, 1822, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law titled An Act to Prevent the Destruction of Oysters, and for Other Purposes, in the State that restricted oyster harvest gear and prohibited the export of North Carolina oysters to other states.

The N.C. Coastal Habitat Protection Plan Steering Committee will meet from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at the N.C. Cooperative Extension - Craven County Center, 300 Industrial Dr. in New Bern.

The state Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board will meet on Monday, December 5th in the Archdale Ground Floor Hearing room at 10am.  The public is invited to attend the meeting in-person or online.

The N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve will hold Fall local advisory committee meetings Dec. 5 through 14 for their ten reserve sites. All meetings are open to the public.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission took action this week to end overfishing of estuarine striped bass and rebuild the stocks by adopting the Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan Amendment 2.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management has awarded more than $1.7 million to nine local governments to improve public access to coastal beaches and waters for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

An agreement signed today ends litigation without changing the discharge permit issued to Chemours for the treatment of contaminated groundwater to significantly reduce PFAS entering the Cape Fear River.

The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) will meet Nov. 17 at the Beaufort Hotel, 2440 Lennoxville Road, Beaufort. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m., and a public input and comment period is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. At the chair’s discretion, comments may be limited to 3 minutes per person. Prior to the commission meeting, the Coastal Resources Advisory Council (CRAC) will meet Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. at the same location. Both meetings are open to the public.

The N.C. Division of Coastal Management (DCM) announced today that the application period for local government planning and management grants for the 2022-2023 fiscal year has been extended. Local governments in the 20-county coastal area are invited to apply for funding for projects that are anticipated to begin Dec. 15 and to be completed by June 2023.