Gov. Hunt and Sec. Glickman Announce $275 Million Effort to Reduce Water Pollution from Farm Runoff
RALEIGH -- Gov. Jim Hunt and US Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced a new $275 million agreement between the state and the federal government to reduce pollution in several major North Carolina waterways.
Under the agreement signed on the banks of the Neuse River in Goldsboro, the USDA and North Carolina will offer farmers incentives to restore up to 100,000 acres of wetlands and streamside areas and habitats through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).
“My number one environmental priority in North Carolina is restoring and protecting water quality,” Hunt said during a ceremony held at the NC Department of Agriculture's Center for Environmental Farming Services. “This agreement will help us keep North Carolina’s water clean and safe for us and for our children.”
“This program will restore habitat for endangered and threatened wildlife, help bring an important fishery back to health, and improve the quality of a drinking water source serving more than 550,000 people,” Glickman said. “This is a long-term, cost-effective solution to help preserve North Carolina's river basins and watersheds for future generations.”
CREP uses financial incentives to encourage farmers to enroll highly environmentally sensitive land adjacent to targeted streams and rivers in 10-year to 15-year contracts. Under the contracts, farmers agree to remove the lands from agricultural production and plant and maintain long-term, resource-conserving vegetative covers.
Under the program, land along streams and riverbanks in the Neuse, Tar-Pamlico and Chowan river basins and the Jordan Lake watershed will be planted with hardwood trees, grass filter strips, streamside buffers, vegetation serving as habitat for wildlife and restored wetlands. The vegetation and wetlands will filter contaminants from water runoff before it enters streams and rivers. Up to 85,000 acres of streamside habitats and 15,000 acres of wetlands will be enrolled.
The $275 million program includes $221 million in federal funds and $54 million from the state. The NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund has committed almost $40 million as part of the state’s match. Similar programs have been established in Maryland, Oregon, Washington, New York City, Minnesota and the Illinois River Basin.
“This partnership will greatly enhance the state’s water quality improvement efforts in the Piedmont and eastern North Carolina by helping farmers reduce sediments and nutrients in our rivers,” said Wayne McDevitt, Secretary of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which will help administer the program.
As Governor, Hunt has pushed to protect and restore North Carolina’s waterways. Hunt’s environmental budget, announced last month, includes critical funding for safer swimming areas, stronger enforcement programs and keeping waterways clean by reducing runoff pollution.
Hunt’s $14.4 million environmental budget includes a clean water package to restore and protect wetlands, strengthen marine fisheries and coastal resource protection, reduce sediments reaching waterways and eliminate straight-piping (sending untreated wastewater from a home directly into a stream), which is a major water pollution problem in the mountains. It would also expand recreational water testing inland to protect swimmers.
The $12.1 million clean water plan would also drastically improve information technology throughout the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) by making environmental data more useful to the state’s scientists as well as accessible and understandable to the general public.
Last year, Hunt signed the Clean Water Bond Bill and pushed for its passage. In November, North Carolina voters overwhelmingly approved the $800 million clean water bond referendum. The clean water bonds provide grants and loans to help local governments repair and improve water supply systems and wastewater collection and treatment, and to undertake water conservation and reuse projects.
In May 1998, Hunt announced an aggressive clean water budget plan to continue the state’s fight against Pfiesteria and water pollution and to strengthen marine fisheries protection. The plan, included in the $77.7 million environmental budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Hunt, focuses on three key components -- prevention, detection and response -- to combat water pollution. The budget included critical funding to reduce nutrients and sediments in North Carolina waterways, support the state’s river basin planning program, provide more aggressive responses to fish kills and boost the state’s compliance and enforcement efforts.
Hunt has fought for fisheries reform, environmental education efforts, improved animal and municipal waste operations, safer drinking water and stepped up enforcement for those who violate water quality regulations. At Hunt’s direction, the state’s Environmental Management Commission approved a plan to reduce the amount of harmful nutrients being released into the troubled Neuse River by 30 percent.
The commission is working on a similar plan for the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.
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Contact: Don Reuter, (919) 715-4112
Date released: 03/01/99
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