HUNT SIGNS CLEAN AIR AND WATER BILLS INTO LAW
Contact: Don Reuter, 919-715-4112
July 21, 1999
RALEIGH -- Gov. Jim Hunt today signed a pair of comprehensive environmental bills that will greatly enhance the state's on-going efforts to protect public health and North Carolina's natural resources.
Hunt signed the clean air and clean water bills at a state government "Tech Fair" celebrating state government's Project Green initiative to develop more environmentally sound practices in day-to-day operations.
"These laws represent tremendous steps forward in our on-going efforts to improve the quality of North Carolina's air and waterways," Hunt said at a bill-signing ceremony with House and Senate leaders in Raleigh. "We have a fundamental responsibility to make sure our citizens have clean air to breath and safe, clean water for drinking, swimming, fishing and other recreational pursuits."
The Clean Air legislation will enact a major portion of Hunt's comprehensive clean air plan for protecting public health, the environment and jobs. The Ambient Air Quality Improvements (Senate Bill 953) expands and improves programs for reducing air pollution from cars and trucks. The clean air bill is aimed at reducing motor vehicle emissions that contribute to ozone, the primary component of smog and the most widespread air quality problem in North Carolina. Exhaust from cars and trucks accounts for about half of the ozone-forming pollution statewide and up to 90 percent in major metropolitan areas.
The legislation establishes statewide goals for cutting emissions of ozone-forming pollutant in North Carolina, and for reducing the growth of vehicle miles traveled in the state. It also will require the use of low-sulfur gasoline statewide, expand and improve the inspection and maintenance program for testing automobile exhaust; set goals for the purchase of low-emission vehicles for the state motor fleet, and encourage the purchase of such vehicles for buses used by public school and transportation systems. The clean air legislation directs the state Environmental Management Commission (EMC) to develop incentives to promote voluntary reductions in air pollution and directs the Department of Transportation to consider ways to reduce air pollution in designing transportation projects.
The Clean Water legislation extends the moratorium on new or expanded large-scale hog farms, raises the maximum water pollution fine from $10,000 per day to $25,000 per day and imposes public disclosure requirements for spills at wastewater treatment plants. The bill also authorizes the Environmental Management Commission to adopt temporary rules to protect water quality in the Cape Fear, Catawba and Tar-Pamlico River basins.
"Public awareness and legislative support for improving North Carolina's environment is growing stronger every day, " said Wayne McDevitt, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "We still have a lot of work ahead of us to restore our state's air and water quality, but now we have essential tools to help us get the job done.”
The clean water and clean air bills, passed by the General Assembly late Monday, mark the conclusion of a strong session for North Carolina's pressing environmental needs. In addition to the legislation, lawmakers approved a state budget which includes $19.9 million in critical new funding support for Governor Hunt's crackdown on sediment pollution, for wetland and buffer protection efforts to restore water quality in North Carolina's rivers and other environmental and natural resource programs.
The budget contains nearly $2.5 million to prevent water pollution from construction runoff, protect groundwater, expand environmental education and conservation efforts and to carry out the new Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) to preserve 100,000 acres of buffers on eastern North Carolina waterways. It also includes $1 million to continue data management improvement efforts in the Division of Marine Fisheries. The funds will be used to enhance permitting and licensing and increase access to commercial landings and habitats and fisheries management data.
As Governor, Hunt has pushed to protect and restore North Carolina's waterways. Last year, he 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.
Earlier this year, Governor Hunt unveiled an aggressive plan to improve hog waste treatment and management in North Carolina by converting swine lagoon and sprayfields to more effective treatment systems. The plan includes three major components: closing and cleaning up inactive lagoons; establishing performance standards for new facilities; and converting active facilities to new technology. Hunt also urged lawmakers to extend the current moratorium on new and expanding swine facilities until July 2001. Hunt proposed the current moratorium, which the legislature passed in 1997. Lagoons and sprayfields can threaten the environment and public health through odor and pollution carried through the air, groundwater contamination, and spills and run-off to waterways.
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.
Hunt has also proposed sweeping changes to improve the state's air quality. Hunt announced his clean air plan at the Governors' Summit on Mountain Air Quality in April. Hunt also has called for more incentives for alternative-fuel vehicles, increased funding for mass transit, and an expansion of the ozone forecasting system.
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