NCD980602163_19971230_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Memorandum re NC's Agenda for Action-OCR

_: -.. , -~---' ·,--·
JAMES 8 . HUNT JR ..
GoVERNOR
WAYNE MCDEVITT
SECRETARY
MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE:
Assistant Secretaries
Division Directors
Richard Rogers f i/;
December 30, 1997
North Carolina's Agenda for Action
Governor Hunt established five cross-departmental teams to oversee the development and
implementation of the following initiatives derived from the ''North Carolina Agenda for
Action": Safe Communities. Clean Environin,1t, Financial Security, Personal and
Parental Responsibility, and A Good Start and Good Education. Secretary McDevitt is
the Clean Environment te,am liader.
These team; will begin meeting in January. The development of an action plan to
accomplish the governor's agenda is the team's first charge. The action plan should
consist of initi~ that various departments can take to implement the agenda as well as
additional re:s.Q_urces ·which ·will be required and any legislative =es "~~ght be
needed. All team; are required to develop their action plans by arv 3 e .
Secretary is planning to meet with his team the third week of January to develop the clean
environment action plan.
Attached to this memo is the ''clean environment" portion of the ''North Carolina Agenda
for Action'·. Please read the attachment and answer the questions below as they pertain to
your division. _,We respectfully request your response by January 15th. This will allow us
to pull this information together for the Secretary's meeting with his team the follo'"iing
week.
What is being dm,e ,ww to fulfill cleaJ1 enviro11ment goals as they pertai11 to your
division or program arfa?
What are tlze s/zort OJ1d long term actions we should take to achieve the goals outlined
ill tlze "Agenda/or Adimi"?
What initiatives do we 11eed to adl•aJice during the upcomi11g short session
(budgetary/legislative)?
The information you provide could make up a major portion of our legislative agenda for
upcoming short session as well as for the next three years. It is our intent to roll this
process into our strategic planning process . However due to the short time frame we have
to gather this information, we will temporarily have two parallel tracks regarding the
strategic plan and the clean environment team action plan.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions concerning this matter at
715-4 I 52.
Attachments
P.O. Box 27687, RALEIGH NC 27611-7687 / 512 NORTH SALISBURY STREET, RALEIGH NC 27604
PHONE [phone] FAX [phone] WWW.EHNR.STATE.NC.US/EHNR/
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CLEAN ENVIRONMENT
Protect and Restore our Water Quality. Every child should grow up in a
community with clean, safe water. We must: _
• Clean up our river basins, using the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse plans as a model.
• Boost efforts to restore and protect wetlands and coastal resources.
Prevent Animal Waste Pollution. We must ensure that our communities and water
supply are safe from animal waste pollution. We must vigorously enforce the new rules
we passed this year to guard against animal waste pollution, and we should:
• Ensure that livestock farms do not threaten water quality, by training farmers in
good waste management techniques.
• Help fanners meet new regulations.
Expand Public Transportation. We should develop a modern system of public
transportation, linking urban and rural areas. We should consider the Transit 2001
Commission's recommendations, improve and increase aid for urban and rural transit
systems, and expand and improve rail service between cities.
Improve Marine Fisheries Management. We need an effective Marine Fisheries
division in order to maintain a healthy coastal environment and help our fishing industry
and recreational fishermen.
Protect our Natural Heritage, Forests & :!\fountains. We must develop
comprehensive plans to protect our natural heritage, our forests and our mountains.
• Improve our natural heritage protection program.
• Work with foresters & environmentalists to develop a plan for sustainable forestry.
• Protect our mountain areas -encourage land-use planning, eliminate "straight-
piping," and support efforts to reduce air pollution.
Increase Public Awareness & Public Involvement. Environmental awareness
and public participation is a critical part of preserving and protecting our environment, and
we must expand such opportunities.
Reform the Regulatory Process. We need to reform the regulatory process, but do
it in a waythat does not harm the environment.
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CLEAN ENVIRONMENT
Few states can match North Carolina's beauty, our resources or our quality of life. The
environment is critical to the health of our families and the health of our economy. We
have an obligation to protect and restore North Carolina's environment so our children
-; will grow up in a state with clean air and clean water.
Protect and Restore our Water Quality
Every child should grow up in a community with clean, safe water. We must
protect our rivers, our lakes and our coast. And we must clean up and restore
waterways that have suffered from pollution.
North Carolina's water quality problems can only be solved through cooperation. We
need to ensure cooperation between government agencies, appointed commissions,
universities, researchers, industry and our citizens to achieve our common goa1 of
restoring our environment.
Gean up our river basi~ We must clean up all of our river basins and use the Tar-
Pamlico and Neuse River plans as a model. To restore those basins we should:
• Reduce nutrients. We must identify, fund and implement steps to reduce nitrogen
loading by 30% in the Tar and Neuse basins by 1999. And we should set goals for
additional targeted reduction by the year 2004.
• Reduce non-point source poIJution. We should design and implement wetlands
restoration efforts in both the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse basins, focusing on nonpoint
pollution control. These programs should include an emphasis on riparian buff er
protection and restoration along sensitive waters.
Boost efforts to restore and protect wetlands. Maintaining wetlands is an important part
of protecting our environment. Wetlands serve as a sort ofnatura1 filter of pollutants. We
should step up the restoration and protection of wetlands.
Improve coastal resource protection. We ought to integrate government programs, rules
and rule-making bodies, as appropriate, to improve coastal-resource protection -
including fisheries, water quality and habitat protection.
And we should test our coasta1 waters. North Carolina has little data about the quality of
our beacn water. Although we believe it is safe because we have no wastewater
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discharges and few stormwater discharges to the ocean, we need to conduct a beach
monitoring program to collect this baseline data and ensure beach-goers this water is safe.
Prevent Animal Waste Pollution
: Most of our livestock fanners are responsible and do not pose a threat to our ·.
· • environment. But we need to get tough on hog fanns that pollute. Animal waste spills
have polluted numerous eastern waterways, causing fish kills, and have threatened the
drinking water of many communities. We've developed the tools to guard against animal
waste pollution, now we must vigorously enforce the new rules.
We must ensure that our communities and water supply are safe from animal waste
pollution.
Boost efforts to ensure that livestock /arm operations do not threaten water quality.
We must ensure that livestock farm operators are trained in good waste management
techniques and that hog farm inspectors are on the job ready to act in case of problems.
Toughen approach to odor from livestock/arms. Odor is one of the main complaints
from neighbors oflarge livestock operations. We should increase research on new
technology that will reduce the odor from large hog operations.
Ensure that/arms go where assimilative capacity exists. We need to make certain that
hog farms are located in areas in which the environment can best assimilate them. To do
this, we should incorporate animal waste permitting into our basinwide water quality
management plans.
Help farmers meet new regulations., We ought to provide additional money for the ag-
cost share program, which helps farmers update their farms to meet new standards, and
we should target those dollars to trouble areas.
Consider secondary impacts in the issuance of permits for large sl(ll,lghterhouses. We
know from past experience that the construction oflarge slaughterhouses leads to the
growth of more hog farms. We need to ensure that growth is sustainable.
-~ ... .....::. . -..
Expand Public Transportation
While roads are an important part of our infrastructure, we must explore ways to become
less depencient on pavement. By expanding alternative transportation, we can conserve
scarce resources and ·reduce pollution.
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t
We should develop a modern system of public transportation, linking urban and
rural areas.
In the next four years we should:
• Consider the recommendations of the Transit 2001 Commission. We
should look at improving and increasing aid for urban and rural transit systems,
expanding rail service between cities, and other ways to reduce pressure on the
highway system.
• Increase flexibility of transportation funds. We should increase the
flexibility of transportation funds so they can be used for transit, rail, sidewalks
and bike paths, as well as highways.
• Improve and expand passenger rail service in North Carolina. By buying
out the North Carolina Railroad, we can continue to use the tracks to
encourage economic development, and use the infrastructure to improve and
expand passenger rail service. We also must implement the improvements
necessary to cut time for rail service between Raleigh and Charlotte to two
hours.
• Complete transportation centers. We should complete transportation centers
and train stations in Charlotte, High Point, Durham, Raleigh, Rocky Mount,
Wilson and Selma.
• Improve the ferry system. We should improve the ferry system as a means of
increasing tourism in eastern North Carolina, including expanding the
capabilities of the Ferry Division maintenance facility in Mann's Harbor to do
major rebuilds, and perhaps new vessel construction.
• Expand air service and reduce congestion. We need to continue working
with major airports to expand service -including international destinations.
And we need to improve-and expand aviation access to large communities and
cities through a system of smaller, "reliever" airports that will reduce
congestion at major airports like Charlotte-Douglas International and Raleigh-
Durham International.
Improve Marine Fisheries Management
Our fisheries stocks are at risk. Of our 36 important fish and shellfish stocks, only 13 are
healthy. Fifteen are classified as troubled, and we don't have enough data on the
remaining eight to know their condition. The problems are myriad -from environmental
degradation to over-fishing.
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We need an effective Marine Fisheries Division in order to maintain a healthy
coastal environment and help our fishing industry and recreational fishermen.
We need to look at this issue in a comprehensive way. And we need to have better
coordination between the various government agencies, commissions and interest groups
. that are concerned with marine fisheries and coastal protection.
The Fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee is developing a comprehensive, long-term
management program for North Carolina's coastal fisheries through maintenance of
healthy stocks, restoration of depleted stocks and wise use of resources available for
harvest.
As the committee recommends, we need to create fisheries and coastal habitat
management plans. These plans are necessary ifwe are to restore our depleted stocks and
protect existing stocks. We must strengthen the role of the Marine Fisheries Commission
and the Division of Marine Fisheries in water quality protection.
And we should improve marine fisheries law enforcement by enabling the Marine Fisheries
Commission to restrict the use of destructive gear, seize the gear of people who totally
disobey our rules and revoke fisheries' licenses based on a point system similar to that
enforced by the DMV with drivers' licenses.
Protect our Natural Heritage, Forests and Mountains
We must develop and implement comprehensive plans to presenre and protect our
natural heritage, our forests and our mountains.
Improve our natural heritage protection program Our state is one of the most bio-
diverse in the country, with an amazing array of plant and animal species. We must work
to preserve and protect these special gifts by designing an improved and targeted natural
heritage program:
• Complete and maintain up-to-date natural area inventories statewide.
• Use the Natural Heritage Program to promote and design conservation
easements on private land. · . · .
• Complete basinwide natural heritage protection plans for the Tar and Neuse
basins as models for other coastal basins, in consultation with the Nature
Conservancy and local land trusts.
• Promote critical habitat protection programs for aquatic endangered species .
• Enhance .state acquisition of key natural areas and restoration sites .
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Sustaina.bl~ forestry. Both foresters and environmentalists agree that we need to develop
a plan for sustainable forestry. We must work with both groups to reach an agreement
that protects our forests while continuing a valuable industry. We should establish
sustainable forestry guidelines that promote reforestation and preservation of water and
land quality. And we should create management plans to enhance the protection and
restoration of threatened and endangered species in forest communities.
Mountain issues. Our mountains are one of our most precious resources, and one of our
top tourist attractions. With increasing tourism and development, we must ensure that
residents and their environment are protected from pollution. We ought to bring together
government and business leaders from area states to the top of Mount :Mitchell, to focus
on the damage that their pollution has done to our mountain areas and to press them for
regional solutions. In the next four years, we should also:
• Encourage mountain counties to initiate land-use planning, to preserve views
from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
• Eliminate "straight-piping" of untreated wastewater directly in Western North
Carolina's rivers and streams.
• Support regional air quality initiative through the Southern Appalachian
Mountain Initiative and other state and federal partnerships.
• Seek and support federal and state actions to limit smog and other air
pollutants.
Increase Public Awareness and Public Involvement
Environmental awareness and public participation are critical parts of environmental
protection. By encouraging the copcept of stewardship and ensuring that there are natural
areas where people can learn about the environment, we can help preserve a clean
environment:
• Establish education grants for public schools and communities to teach students
about the environment. And encourage schools to integrate environmental
education into school curricula . . ·.
• Create a citizens' ·ombudsman and toll-free line to respond to citizen
environmental concerns.
• Increase opportunities for public participation in environmental rule-making.
• Use the Neuse environmental education plan, which is individualized to address
_the spedal pollution problems of the Neuse basin, as a model for other "basin"
or area environmental education plans.
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• Support continued involvement in water and air quality monitoring and
integrate citizen involvement.
• Encourage citizen water and air quality monitoring programs and use
information from those programs to support and fill in the gaps in state
monitoring efforts.
Regulatory Reform
In our plan to increase financial security, we will discuss the need to remove regulatory
barriers to growth. We need to reform the regulatory process, but do it in a way that does
not harm the environment.
We need an environmental regulatory system that is fair, straightforward and easily
understood. Bureaucracy and red tape should not stand in the way of common sense
when it comes to preserving and protecting our environment. We also must recognize
that one-size-fits-all solutions no longer work in today's world. What works in Asheville
may not work in Wilmington. We need to tailor individual solutions to individual
problems.
• Simplify the permitting process through streamlining and eliminating red tape
and unnecessary paperwork.
• Improve DEHNR's information management system to ensure that
environmental data is put to use in the permitting process.
• Currently, the responsibility for water quality is scattered across a number of
divisions. We need to continue our efforts to streamline water quality
management.
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