Press Releases

The state environmental department commends Governor Pat McCrory for signing a law that sets enforceable deadlines for Duke Energy to provide alternate water supplies to well owners near coal ash ponds. The law also requires the company to repair dams around the ponds and process coal ash for reuse in concrete manufacturing.  

The state environmental agency will host a public information session in Eden on July 27 to inform residents of Duke Energy’s plans to construct and operate a new lined landfill to safely store coal ash at its Dan River Steam Station in Rockingham County. Duke Energy has applied with the state agency for a solid waste permit for the proposed landfill, which would be constructed with a protective liner and would store coal ash currently contained in an unlined basin on the same Dan River facility property.

The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission will meet July 12-13 at the NOAA/NERR Administration Building Auditorium, 101 Pivers Island in Beaufort. The meeting will begin at 1:15 p.m. on July 12 and 9 a.m. on July 13. The meeting is open to the public. Items on the commission’s agenda include:

The New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and the state’s coastal management agency are urging the public to act responsibly this weekend during the July Fourth holiday at the Masonboro Island Reserve. For the 2016 holiday weekend, the state coastal agency and the sheriff’s office have worked together to provide for public safety and increase public awareness of responsible visitor behavior on the island. In particular, the agencies would like to remind visitors to the island not to attempt the very dangerous swim across Masonboro Inlet.

Severe drought has returned to North Carolina for the first time since September 2015 as rainfall deficits continue to impact the southwestern mountains. Portions of Macon, Transylvania, Jackson and Haywood counties were upgraded from moderate drought to severe drought due to lack of adequate rainfall, according to the most recent federal drought map, which is updated every Thursday. Severe drought is the second highest of the four drought categories.

Coastal recreational fishermen hooked more fish in North Carolina in 2015 than they did in 2014. Anglers brought an estimated 10.2 million fish to the docks in 2015, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2014. The estimated weight of these landings rose by 32 percent to 11.6 million pounds. Anglers also released 6 percent more fish in 2015 than in 2014. The top five recreational species harvested, by pounds, were dolphin, bluefish, yellowfin tuna, cobia and wahoo. Landings increased for three of these five species.

The state environmental department will hold a public hearing June 22 in Hickory to hear comments on a draft modified wastewater discharge permit for Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station. The facility is required to have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit to cover discharges of wastewater to Lake Norman in the Catawba River basin. The draft permit under review is a renewal of permit #NC0004987.

As part of Governor Pat McCrory’s initiative to protect low-income and minority communities from the effects of coal ash, the state environmental agency has evaluated the potential impact of storing ash in a new lined landfill in Wilmington. An initial review found that storing ash in a new landfill near the Sutton Steam Station would have no disproportionate impact on low-income, minority, and other residential communities within a mile of the proposed site.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun implementing a revised water control plan at Kerr Lake dam, as negotiated by the Corps, the state’s lead environmental agency, other state and federal agencies, non-government organizations and Dominion. Under the revised plan, when the water level in Kerr Lake is above the new guidelines, water releases from the dam that flow into the Roanoke River and floodplain will occur in larger amounts and for shorter periods of time than they have in the past.

A new environmental rule will reduce paperwork for more than 1,400 business owners while freeing up resources North Carolina will use to protect air quality. The businesses that would qualify for air permit exemptions include food manufacturing and colleges and universities.