Press Releases

With wildfires burning across Western North Carolina, state air quality officials are distributing a visibility guide for assessing health risks from smoke due to wildfires.Smoke from wildfires periodically causes locally unhealthy air quality in North Carolina, depending on winds, moisture levels and other weather factors. The N.C. Division of Air Quality or DAQ has a network of monitors that have measured unhealthy levels of particle pollution at some locations, but those monitors are not always situated where smoke is heaviest.

For the first time since the drought of 2008, exceptional drought conditions have moved into Clay and Cherokee counties, the two most western counties in North Carolina. Exceptional drought is the highest level of drought determined by the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council and the U.S. Drought Monitor. Extreme drought, or the second highest of the four drought categories, has spread to three additional western counties, bringing the total number of counties in extreme drought to nine.

Officials with the state environmental department are asking for public feedback on draft permits that aim to protect water quality at Duke Energy’s W.H. Weatherspoon Plant.

The state environmental agency will hold a public hearing Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 on a draft water quality permit that would serve as a critical step toward safely closing coal ash ponds at Duke Energy’s Rogers Energy Complex. The public may comment on the proposed permit either in person or in writing until 6 p.m. at the Boiling Springs Town Hall, 114 East College Ave., Boiling Springs, N.C.  Speaker registration begins at 5 p.m.

Governor Pat McCrory announced today that more than $945,000 in grants has been awarded for nine projects that will help North Carolina communities restore streams, reduce flooding and erosion, aid in stormwater management, provide recreational opportunities and benefit the state’s water resources.    “Our natural habitat is what makes North Carolina a beautiful state to live in and to visit, “said Gov. McCrory. “These grants serve as investments into our state’s resources that will yield valuable returns for years to come.”

The Elizabeth City office of the Divisions of Coastal Management and Marine Fisheries is closing for facility repairs and will remain closed for an undetermined amount of time. Members of the public seeking a CAMA permit or fishing license may go to the Department of Environmental Quality’s Washington Regional Office at 943 Washington Square Mall in Washington or call 252-946-6481. Those seeking a fishing license also may go to the Division of Marine Fisheries’ Manteo Field Office, 1021 Driftwood Drive, Manteo or call 252-473-5734.

As the 2016 ozone season comes to an end, North Carolina is fully complying with the new, more stringent ozone standard that the federal Environmental Protection Agency adopted last year, state environmental officials said in recent recommendations to the federal agency.

State environmental officials visited Harnett County this week to tour a temporary storm debris site that was opened to help local residents clean up after Hurricane Matthew. Under the direction of Governor Pat McCrory, the state environmental department has activated more than 60 temporary debris sites for use in eastern North Carolina to collect yard waste, land clearing or demolition debris from the storm.

Local Advisory Committees for six coastal reserves will meet in November. The meetings are open to the public.

The state environmental department issued a permit this week that will require Duke Energy to safely dispose of coal ash at the Dan River Steam Station in Eden. The permit allows the company to move forward with plans to build and operate a lined industrial landfill to store coal ash that is now contained in two unlined basins on the same property.