THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310508
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
A Senate agriculture and environment issues bill poised to be approved today would reduce the state's role in wetlands protection - over the objection of the state agency that administers the program.
Supporters of the measure say the bill is intended to reduce unnecessary duplication of wetlands protection programs and curb the state's growing influence over development permits issued in areas defined as wetlands.
But the bill's opponents fear it will jeopardize hundreds of acres of wetlands and the waterways and fisheries they protect.
``I don't want to hurt the coast, but right now, we can't grow,'' said Sen. Beverly Perdue, a Craven County Democrat, one of 29 sponsors of the legislation.
Perdue said the bill is virtually assured of approval when the Senate Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee brings it to a vote, and by the Senate when the chamber considers the measure this week or next.
The bill is intended to clarify the authority of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources under the federal Clean Water Act to regulate development that takes place in the state's wetlands. It also establishes a voluntary wetlands-mitigation bank and afund of monetary contributions and donations of interest in real estate to be used for the acquisition, restoration or creation of wetlands.
The bill also requires the Environmental Management Commission, the state panel that oversees water quality programs, to adopt a wetlands-rating system that identifies wetlands that qualify as ``unique.''
These wetlands would be restricted to coastal saltwater wetlands and wetlands of exceptional value to the environment.
The bill ``makes it easier for people to deal with small projects that don't have much of an environmental impact on the state,'' said Sen. David W. Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat.
Hoyle said the destruction of wetlands by developers granted permits by the state has slowed to 5.19 acres of coastal marsh and a total of 507 acres of wetlands statewide each year.
But opponents of his bill said the measure would gut the regulations that are most responsible for that slowdown in wetlands losses.
Wetlands generally are defined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as areas covered with shallow water, or where the water table appears near the surface during a portion of the growing season. Wetlands are also characterized by specific soils and plants and by a certain degree of water saturation.
Wetlands such as salt marshes and bottom-land hardwood forests filter pollutants before they can enter neighboring waterways. They also provide valuable fish and wildlife habitat.
For about 25 years, permission for developers to dredge and fill wetlands has been obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the federal Clean Water Act, which is under review by Congress.
Coastal marshes and other saltwater wetlands are also protected as so-called ``areas of environmental concern'' under the Coastal Area Management Act, administered by the Division of Coastal Management.
Hoyle's bill would require the state to approve automatically any project that would:
Affect less than an acre of so-called ``unique'' wetlands;
Affect between one and three acres of ``unique'' wetlands if the applicant for a permit agrees to mitigate any wetlands losses;
Affect less than three acres of any wetlands not considered ``unique.''
The result would be the elimination of state review of about 85 percent of the permit applications submitted to the Division of Environmental Management under the Clean Water Act, according to Ron Ferrell, DEM water quality environmental specialist.
``This is a real diversion from present practices,'' he said Tuesday before the Senate committee meeting.
The division currently denies less than 2 percent of some 1,000 permits for projects affecting at least an acre of wetlands, although DEM often recommends that a proposed development be modified before it issues a permit, Ferrell said.
The bill has the support of most of the state's farming, forestry, home-building and business lobbyists. North Carolina's environmental managers and most environmental lobbyists support the bill's wetlands mitigation section but oppose any reduction in state authority over wetlands permits.
``We certainly can do something to define the scope of the state's authority under the Clean Water Act,'' said E. Paul Wilms, lobbyist for the state's Homebuilders Association. ``It is important that the General Assembly establish what the state's role is.''
But Steve Levitas, deputy secretary of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, said that even if the state has strayed too far from its intended mission in the wetlands permitting process, Hoyle's bill goes too far in trying to correct that.
Hoyle's bill would ``take us totally out of the picture,'' he told the committee. ``We think that goes too far the other way.''
Hoyle's bill is one of several scheduled for debate in the Senate during the remainder of the session as the attention shifts from the Republican-controlled House to the Senate where Democrats hold a two-vote margin.
Other items of regional interest before Senate committees include:
A bill to delay the implementation of rules approved by the state Marine Fisheries Commission, the Coastal Resources Commission and other regulatory boards until the General Assembly reviewed them. The bill, sponsored by Rep. E. David Redwine, a Brunswick County Democrat, has been referred to a Senate judiciary committee.
A bill to limit the House speaker and the Senate president pro tempore to two terms. The bill, sponsored by Rep. William T. Culpepper III, a Chowan County Democrat, has been referred to a Senate judiciary committee.
A bill that calls for a voter referendum on a lottery. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Frank Ballance, a Warren County Democrat, is before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
A bill to require natural gas companies to make natural gas service available throughout their franchise area. The bill, sponsored by Rep. W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr., a Pasquotank County Democrat, has been referred to the Senate Commerce Committee.
Bills to change the state's divorce laws to require property distribution before divorces are granted and make other changes in divorce laws. The bills, sponsored by Rep. Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, and others have been referred to the Senate Judiciary I Committee.
Work in the Senate is expected to speed up in the next three weeks after Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, told his committee chairmen that all committees except appropriations and finance, will close down June 15 as part of an effort to end the General Assembly session by the end of the month. by CNB