THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, July 29, 1995                TAG: 9507290272
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: RALEIGH                            LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines

ASSEMBLY APPROVES $4.2 MILLION FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FISHERIES AGENDA HAS BEEN A BATTLE, HUNT SAID.

The General Assembly has given North Carolina environmental agencies ammunition to fight pollution from animal operations, improve local land-use planning and step up fisheries law enforcement.

On Friday, the Assembly approved more than $4.2 million for coastal environmental and fisheries programs as part of the $384 million expansion and capital budget.

Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. called the spending package an important step in protection for the coastal environment.

``Getting this environmental agenda passed has been a battle. The legislature has made a good start in the right direction,'' Hunt said in a statement. ``Now we've got to build on that good start and keep working to preserve and protect our natural resources.''

While coastal North Carolina continues to reel from four spills from animal-waste lagoons in late June and early July and fish kills on the Neuse and Pamlico rivers, the Assembly approved a budget intended to address these problems, Hunt said.

The final budget trims about $350,000 from new spending for the Division of Coastal Management included in the Senate budget. That agency is now slated to receive $514,980.

But the budget increases spending for animal-waste inspectors and nonpoint source pollution prevention in the divisions of Environmental Management and Soil and Water Conservation. Those agencies will receive more than $1 million for 19 new staff positions for animal waste and nonpoint source programs.

``A lot of the governor's coastal agenda was included in the budget, but, to be frank, the animal waste spills and recent fish kills rearranged the priorities,'' said Debbie Cran, spokeswoman for the Department of Environment Health and Natural Resources.

The budget also includes the following:

$500,000 in new funds for the Agricultural Cost Share program for animal-waste programs;

$763,892 for seven new marine fisheries enforcement officers;

$155,00 for a deputy director for marine fisheries, expenses for Marine Fisheries Commission advisers and the Moratorium Steering Committee;

$500,000 for marine fisheries enforcement equipment; and

$300,000 for a new oceangoing vessel for fisheries law enforcement.

The budget vote prompted applause from spectators at a meeting of the Coastal Resources Commission, the policy-making arm of the state's coastal program in Morehead City.

And it sparked praise from the commission's chairman.

``This is the first expansion budget we've had in 10 years,'' said Eugene B. Tomlinson Jr. after a meeting of the Coastal Resources Commission Friday. ``It indicates that there is an awareness that we must protect our coastal resources.'' by CNB