THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409080510
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILMINGTON LENGTH: Long : 148 lines
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. said North Carolina should act now to protect its fragile coast, and he pledged his support for programs to do that.
``I believe it to the bottom of my soul that we have a moral responsibility to take care of the land, the air and the water,'' he said.
Hunt said a series of recommendations from a nine-month study of coastal environmental regulations will be ``a challenge to be approved.'' The report faces opposition, particularly from those who oppose land use planning, Hunt said.
``I think North Carolinians can be behind it if they can be made to understand it,'' Hunt said. ``This is not a radical document. This is the kind of document that we can get behind.''
Hunt said he has not yet seen the completed report, but says he can support most of the recommendations in a draft that he has seen.
Hunt was the featured speaker at the opening of a three-day conference on national coastal policies that culminated a nine-month review of environmental regulations affecting the state's coast.
The review comes on the 20th anniversary of the state's Coastal Area Management Act, approved by the General Assembly in 1974 as part of a federal initiative to protect the nation's coastlines.
Hunt spoke to the group after the Coastal Futures Committee, a 15-member panel appointed by the governor late last year to study current coastal management efforts and recommend future action, presented its findings.
Taking his cue from the committee's report, Hunt called for stronger, regional land use planning, aggressive controls on stormwater runoff that is entering the state's waterways and an increased emphasis on environment-friendly economic development - such as eco-tourism and aquaculture - in the state's coastal region.
``The coast belongs to all of us. The fisherman and his family in Wanchese have a stake in its future, but so does the family from Asheville,'' Hunt said. The committee report maintains that the key to protecting the coast still lies with urging local governments to improve planning for land and water use and requiring governments to follow through with those plans.
Under current CAMA regulations, each county is required to create a detailed growth plan - which must be updated every five years and approved by the Coastal Resources Commission - that analyzes local economic and environmental issues. Besides the 20 coastal counties, more than 60 municipalities have voluntarily developed land-use plans.
But under current law, local governments are not required to follow the plans they develop.
The committee's proposals also include requirements that local land-use plans include detailed sewage treatment plans and projections for future sewage treatment needs and that local land-use plans be coordinated with drinking water plans to create a comprehensive strategy for dealing with local growth.
And it proposes tying eligibility for some state and federal grants to a local government's development of an implementation program for their land-use plans.
Among its recommendations:
The state must provide adequate financial and technical help to local governments for preparing high-quality land use plans.
Planning should encompass entire coastal regions and should include such things as regional water quality protection, transportation routes, waste disposal and economic development.
The state should strengthen and more strictly enforce environmental laws concerning pollution from runoff from cities and farms and other non-point sources of pollution.
Waterways that suffer from chronic pollution problems should be subject to specific environmental regulations.
The state should expand its protection of wetlands to give freshwater wetlands the same protection now given to saltwater wetlands.
Environmental education programs should be expanded and begin in kindergarten and other pre-school programs.
No cost estimates for implementing the proposals have been prepared and many recommendations by the panel require additional action by the state legislature, the Coastal Resources Commission or other regulatory panels.
Once the plan reaches the General Assembly, it will likely face the close scrutiny of legislators. Some committee members and state officials said the next step will be to work to ensure that the plan is implemented.
``This is a document that either sits on a shelf or people take it seriously,'' said JoAnn Burkholder, a study committee member and professor at North Carolina State University. ``The recommendations are going to take a lot of commitment and a lot of funding measures.''
Steve Levitas, deputy director of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, the state agency that oversees environmental programs along the state's coast, said the department will begin incorporating many of the proposals in its budget proposals to the state legislature early next year. MEMO: PANEL RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations approved by the Coastal Futures Committee
encompass seven areas: Land use growth management, coastal water
quality, protection of natural areas, the Coastal Area Management Act
regulatory program, environmental education and the coastal economy.
Here's a look at some of the nearly 200 recommendations included in the
committee's report:
Require local land use plans to consider the cumulative and secondary
effects of growth.
Require land use plans to contain an implementation package that
includes ``necessary land use ordinances.'' Requests substantial state
financial help to local governments for implementing this
recommendation.
Tie eligibility to state and federal grants to adoption by the local
government of a land-use plan and implementation program that complies
with the minimum standards of the Coastal Resources Commission.
Give special help to those local governments affected by the
development of the Global Transpark and to the expansion of military
bases to plan for increased services generated by the developments.
Require a disclosure of known coastal hazards and regulatory
requirements to all buyers of oceanfront property.
Improve the state's beach and coastal waters access plan and develop
a funding plan to improve public access.
Identify and establish an additional coastal reserve site in the
Albemarle-Pamlico region in cooperation with the Partnership for the
Sounds program and national wildlife refuges in the area.
Provide additional incentives for land donations to the public by
owners of coastal wetlands and other natural areas. Requires action by
the General Assembly.
Appoint one member of the Coastal Resources Commission with expertise
in ocean resource management.
Develop a comprehensive marina policy that would include design,
siting and operation and maintenance procedures.
Develop a comprehensive policy concerning ocean outfalls for
wastewater disposal.
Increase water quality monitoring by the Division of Environmental
Management in targeted watersheds to evaluate the effectiveness of
agricultural best-management practices.
Improve Department of Transportation management of stormwater runoff
from road construction sites.
Expand efforts to develop a comprehensive state ocean management
plan.
Expand funding for protection and acquisition of natural areas.
Develop a policy and regulations discouraging the use of hard
stabilization structures on estuarine shorelines.
Establish special designations similar to those used for primary and
secondary nursery areas for submerged aquatic vegetation, shellfish
beds, fish spawning grounds and habitat for aquatic endangered and
threatened species.
Accelerate current efforts to acquire remaining tracts of maritime
forest.
Develop a long-range transportation plan for the Outer Banks and
other barrier islands.
Develop additional standards for inlet hazard areas, including
restrictions on development in areas of inlet migration.
Source: Coastal Futures Committee by CNB