Press Releases

Several State Government Complex buildings were impacted by the five-alarm fire in downtown Raleigh on the night of March 16. Affected buildings are expected to resume normal operations on Monday, March 20. The Department of Administration’s Facility Management Division today conducted walk-through inspections of each state government building in the vicinity of the fire to ensure safety.

The Raleigh headquarters of the state Department of Environmental Quality will reopen to employees and the public at 8 a.m. Monday and resume its normal operating schedule.

The public is invited to a series of public meetings next week to provide feedback on Duke Energy’s draft plans to close coal ash impoundments at four high-priority facilities: Asheville Steam Electric Plant, Dan River Steam Station, Riverbend Steam Station and the Sutton Steam Plant.

A court has granted the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s motion to withdraw from an ongoing legal challenge to part of the federal Clean Power Plan. The motion to withdraw was granted this week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein filed the motion Feb. 23 on behalf of Michael Regan, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

State environmental officials are conducting a nationwide search for a director for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. For the past 11 months, Braxton Davis has served as the director for the state divisions of Marine Fisheries and Coastal Management. The divisions had their own directors before April when Davis – then director of the Division of Coastal Management – was named to also lead the Division of Marine Fisheries. 

The policy board for the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, has named its new leadership team for the next two years. Kirk Havens, the vice-chairman of the board since 2015, assumed the chairmanship at the board’s recent meeting. Holly White, the principal planner for Nags Head, was elected to fill Havens’ position as vice chairperson. Also, board members welcomed the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Mary Penny Kelley as DEQ Secretary Michael Regan’s appointee. Kelley is the department’s senior advisor for Policy and Innovation. 

Local advisory committees for four coastal reserves will meet in March. The meetings are open to the public. The meetings are being held to review the updated five-year management plan for the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve. There will be an introduction to the management plan followed by a facilitated discussion.

North Carolina commercial fishermen in the central and southern coastal area may receive a survey conducted by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. The survey is a follow up to previously conducted data collection in 2010, and seeks information on fishing habits, perceptions, income, expenditures and demographics. The information gathered in the survey will be used in fishery management plans as well as to develop economic impact models to help fisheries managers make informed decisions on various fisheries topics.

The N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. March 9 in Beaufort to seek input on a proposal for a public hunting permit system for the Rachel Carson Reserve. The meeting will be held at the Beaufort Train Depot at 614 Broad St. in Beaufort. Public input from the meeting will help guide the management of areas currently open to hunting within the boundaries of the Rachel Carson Reserve.

The 2017 ozone season starts today, as state and local environmental agencies renew their daily air quality forecasts for ozone in metropolitan areas across North Carolina.  Ozone, which has been North Carolina’s most widespread air quality concern, continues to decline, thanks in large part to reductions in emissions from its primary air pollution sources – power plants, industry and motor vehicles.