Success Story: MountainTrue’s Green Riverkeeper Helps Avoid Shooting Range Next to Green River Game Land

The proposed shooting range brought water quality, public input concerns

We did it! After a week of whirlwind organizing, residents of Saluda and the greater Henderson County area are celebrating victory as Hendersonville County Commissioners have promised to back away from building a proposed shooting range and law enforcement training center. The facility would have been built on a 99-acre lot on Macedonia Road and bordering the Green River Game Land.

“As our region continues to grow, we have to consider what type of development we want to see and how we can strike a balance between the influx of people moving to our beautiful area and the protection of our special places and rural character,” says Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue’s Green Riverkeeper. “That takes careful planning and an engaged citizenry who will put their foot down to stop a bad idea in its tracks when necessary.”

Threat to Community, Public Lands

And why was this an issue MountainTrue cared about? “We ha[d] lots of concerns about lead contamination and water quality, noise impacts on wildlife, sedimentation from land clearing and development, and potential steep slope development and landslide risk,” Gray told MountainTrue members in an email and the Hendersonville Lightning in an interview. The wetlands and streams at the proposed site drain directly to the Green River, which is also a water supply watershed, and lead contamination from bullets posed a water quality threat.

Residents pointed out that they were opposed to the site chosen for the shooting range, and not to shooting itself. Resident Carl McMurray said, “I’m a gun owner. I’m a pretty avid shooter. That’s not the issue. My issue is with the traffic and noise.”

Put On Notice

A small number of Saluda residents unexpectedly received letters from the Sheriff this month informing them that their properties would be affected by the construction of the project. The letters invited them to an information session at the proposed site on Saturday, April 14, but so many people were expected to attend that the Sheriff moved the location of the meeting to the courthouse in Hendersonville late Friday afternoon. Again, only a handful of residents were notified of the change.

Gray became active in opposing the shooting range early on, coordinating with local residents and mobilizing MountainTrue members. He postponed a river cleanup on Saturday to attend the information session and invited paddlers, but the session happening inside was not open to the public or the media. Gray joined other residents in expressing concern about the public input process, telling the Hendersonville Times-News, “It seems strange that a project that implicates public land would be closed to the public.”

“More Emails Than Residents of Saluda”

The community regrouped for a meeting the following Monday, April 16 to keep organizing. A couple hundred people turned out to the Saluda Fire and Rescue Department to share their concerns about the project and plan the next steps for their response. They encouraged their fellow community members to flood the Henderson County Commissioners with emails, and Commissioner Grady Hawkins later said he had received “more emails than there are residents of Saluda” opposing the shooting range.

Two days later, Saluda turned out in force again for a County Commissioners meeting on April 18. The shooting range project was not on the agenda, but when the Commissioners saw the turnout of concerned citizens, they quickly amended the schedule to include discussion. This was the first time that County officials talked publicly about the project, which likely would not have happened without citizens getting involved.

Success, Less Than A Week Later

Over 70 MountainTrue members and citizens submitted public comments to the Commissioners at the meeting, discussing potential impacts on the environment, their communities, local businesses, and quality of life. At the end of several hours of public comment, the Commissioners reiterated their commitment to back away from pursuing this site.

Henderson County is still under contract on the property and has an option to purchase it until the end of May. The County had already signed contracts with inspectors and consultants to prepare a due diligence report on the property, so the Commissioners decided to fulfill those obligations and will wait to receive the report at their May 16 meeting before officially abandoning the project.

Want To Learn More About Our Work in Saluda and Henderson County?

Join Us!

MT Raleigh Report: NC DEQ Sec. Regan meets with NC Environmental Groups

Michael Regan, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, hosted a meeting of the state’s environmental organizations last week to review the department’s first year and look forward to the year ahead, including the 2018 legislative session.

Regan, who was flanked by his entire management team, listed key hirings in several agencies, as well as responding to the unexpected discovery of the GenX pollutant in the Cape Fear River, as key milestones in his first year under Gov. Roy Cooper.

Environmental groups, which welcomed Regan’s leadership after a rocky relationship with the department under former Sec. Donald van der Vaardt,thanked Regan for his leadership on several issues, including opposing federal efforts to open the state’s coast to offshore oil drilling and implementing an open-door policy.

Looking forward, Regan said the Department would soon begin a new effort focusing on environmental justice. He declined to talk about the details of the Department’s budget priorities for the 2018 session, explaining that its budget requests had not yet been approved by Gov. Cooper. Regan did say, however, that DEQ would request full funding to address the GenX issue in the Cape Fear region.

While the environmental groups did not make a unified request at the meeting, several groups encouraged the Department to detail how the Cooper Administration plans to implement the goals of the state Climate Alliance, which Cooper endorsed last year. The alliance is a group of states that banded together with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement after President Trump pulled the United States out of that agreement. Other environmental groups asked Regan to provide more guidance about the Cooper administration’s priorities to newly-appointed members of key environmental review boards and commissions.

Speaking of the State Budget

Look for Gov. Cooper to deliver his revised fiscal-year-2019 state budget to the legislature in early May, before the General Assembly convenes for its short session on May 16.

North Carolina operates on a two-year (or “biennial”) budget, which is approved in the legislature’s long session in odd-numbered years. The second year of the biennial budget is revised during the legislature’s short session in even-numbered years. In preparation for this revision, the executive branch submits a revised version of the second year budget to the General Assembly. Approval of the second year budget is the legislature’s biggest job during the short session.

Right now, the Cooper Administration is in the process of finalizing its spending plan for FY2018-2109 before it goes public in May. While we won’t know for certain until tax returns are in at the end of April, state revenues appear to be holding steady, with very modest increases in both recurring revenue and nonrecurring revenue available to Cooper and the legislature in crafting the state budget for next year.

That’s the outlook for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. But don’t expect things to be so rosy next spring, when many of the tax cuts approved by the GOP-controlled legislature in recent years are in full effect. Unless the economy grows at a very fast clip, lawmakers and Gov. Cooper will likely face a daunting gap between recurring revenues and recurring expenses like teacher pay and public school enrollment growth – as well as increased investments at DEQ and in land conservation and state parks that many environmentalists support.

With the legislative session around the corner, you can keep track of MountainTrue’s efforts in Raleigh by subscribing to our legislative update list here. Ands make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for news about state and national policy issues that impact WNC.

If you value the MTRaleigh Report, our work in the state capitol and our efforts to protect our region’s environment, please vote for MountainTrue in the categories of “Environmental Or Conservation Nonprofit” and “Activist Group For Civic/Political Action” in Mountain Xpress’ Best of WNC reader poll. Thanks!

Calling All Businesses: Our Planet Needs You

Action Expired

Businesses and Groups can compete against each other for a better planet through the #WNCforthePlanet Business & Community Challenge

Asheville, NC – As part of #WNCforthePlanet – a celebration of Earth Day throughout the month of April – local conservation and environmental nonprofits are recruiting businesses, civic groups and community organizations to take part in the Business & Community Challenge. Through this competition, groups compete with each other to earn Planet Points and work for the improvement of our local environment.

The #WNCforthePeople Business & Community Challenge is open to area businesses, civic organizations and community groups, who then recruit teams from among their members to compete for prizes and bragging rights. Companies interested in getting involved should contact Devon Hathaway, Americorps Outings and Education Coordinator at MountainTrue at outings@mountaintrue.org or by calling (828) 258-8737 ext. 214.

“Environmental stewardship is a core tenet at Mosaic Realty, which is why we’re teaming up with MountainTrue for a workday” said broker and owner Mike Figura. “Mosaic Realty welcomes you to join us and the #WNCforthePlanet team in cleaning up Asheville. We will be putting in a work day at Richmond Hill Park to eradicate invasives and we encourage other local businesses to get involved with service projects in April.”

Teams commit to one or more service projects throughout the month of April and are paired up with a #WNCforthePlanet partner nonprofit organization which will provide staff guidance and equipment for a day of working on behalf of a cleaner and greener WNC. Groups earn Planet Points according to how much they accomplish and the strenuousness of the project. Each team’s score is calculated according to a difficulty scale and averaged on a per-person basis. At the end of the month we tally the Planet Points, rank teams, name victors and hand out awards and prizes.

Available service projects include river cleanups, native habitat restoration, trail workdays and more. The team with the first, second, and third most Planet Points will choose from prizes, including a river float with MountainTrue, RiverLink and Asheville Greenworks, a hike led by the Southern Appalachians Highland Conservancy, or a private tour of New Belgium Brewing. Victors will honored on wncfortheplanet.org and through the social media of participating #WNCforthePlanet partners.

Register your team today. Contact Devon Hathaway, Americorps Outings and Education Coordinator at MountainTrue at outings@mountaintrue.org or by calling (828) 258-8737 ext. 214.

About WNC for the Planet:
WNC for the Planet is a collective made up of local environmental organizations that provides access to service, educational, and recreational opportunities in recognition of Earth Month. We strive to unify our community to encourage and celebrate environmental stewardship for our planet and the region. wncfortheplanet.org

A Message From the Creation Care Alliance: What Lent Can Teach Us About Uncertainty and Action

Scott Hardin-Nieri is the Director of the Creation Care Alliance of WNC, a network of congregations and people of faith who have united around a moral and spiritual call to preserve creation. Whether or not you observe the Christian season of Lent, Scott offers his thoughts on what Lent can teach us in these changing times.

As spring emerges around us, some Christians are observing the season of Lent, a 40-day period of sacrifice and preparation prior to Easter Sunday. While Easter is a celebration of new life, forgiveness, and wholeness, Lent takes on a more introspective and somber tone, reflecting the defining moments in the wilderness in the early stories of Jesus. The beginning of this period is marked by Ash Wednesday, when ashes are placed on the foreheads of the gathered to indicate grief, humility and repentance. Ash Wednesday blessings often use the words: “Remember, you are from dust and to dust you return.” Men, women, children, babies, students, executives, coal miners, bartenders, everybody who chooses to receive ashes on their foreheads at this time are reminded of the fragility, gifts and natural cycles of life.

It is humbling to be reminded of the human relationship to dust, as we remember that humans are part of creation and not above or beyond it. In the Hebrew Scriptures of Genesis, the Hebrew word for the first human, Adam, is closely related to Adamah (אדמה), meaning ground or soil. And as Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness, he comes close to the Adamah around and within him. There, the stories say, he fasted, suffered, and was tested by the forces of pride, brokenness, greed and material wealth. Thus, wilderness is often seen in the Christian world as a place of trial, hardship and temptation.

However wilderness is also a place of becoming, where Jesus lived fully – where he watched the stars, felt the wind and sun, listened to the animals, to the Spirit and to himself. And it is where he practiced living into the name “Beloved,” which was given to him after he emerged from the Jordan River at his baptism. It was this deep connection to land that enabled Jesus to find power in his identity as a peacemaker, a seeker of justice and a friend to the outcast. In other words, Jesus’s time in the wilderness drove him to action.

Aren’t we in a wilderness moment?

We find ourselves in a time of great ecological and social challenge. Congregations that I visit are filled with people who are grieving these challenges and asking difficult questions. I just returned from the State of Appalachia conference in West Virginia, where towns that have been built around the coal industry have had their communities, families, water and land destroyed, and face the task of transitioning to a new source of energy that serves people as well as the earth. We are in an era of unmatched human creativity with new technologies like driverless cars, while also losing some of our planet’s oldest God-given creativity with the extinction of species like the white rhino. We see old power structures flipping, as women and children stand up to march for systemic change in numbers we have never seen before. We are immersed in fear and sadness in this transition, but also offered numerous opportunities to courageously resist despair. How are we caring for our children and grandchildren, and what kind of earth will we pass down to them?

“We are immersed in fear and sadness in this transition, but also offered numerous opportunities to courageously resist despair. How are we caring for our children and grandchildren, and what kind of earth will we pass down to them?”

Scott Hardin-Nieri, Director of the Creation Care Alliance

Like those who observe Ash Wednesday and Lent, we at the Creation Care Alliance are finding a deeper understanding of our relationship to soil, microbes, creatures and people. At a time when dominance over other people and the earth is commended, we believe that finding our place among all things and remembering that we come from and return to dust is a faithful way forward.

So whether you observe Lent or not, we invite you to listen to this wilderness moment and consider how it might transform you if you let it in. If we are able to take the lessons of this time and move forward, I believe this is a moment we will look back on and say, that’s when we figured out who we were.

Want to hear more from the Creation Care Alliance?

Sign up for CCA's newsletter

“Moving Beyond Coal”: An Overview of MountainTrue’s Recent Energy Advocacy By Katie Breckheimer

Former MountainTrue Campaign Manager Joan Walker at a Carolina Land Coalition rally on the old Henderson County Courthouse steps.

MountainTrue’s Board Chair Katie Breckheimer has another article on Blue Ridge Now. Check it out here to read up on MountainTrue’s recent clean energy victories, and learn how we can all pitch in to delay or avoid the construction of another fossil-fuel power plant through the Blue Horizons Project.

MT Raleigh Report: Outdoor Recreation Gets a Champion in the Dept. of Commerce

In a happy turn of events, we have some good news to share from Raleigh.

It actually happened last summer, when the General Assembly created a new position at the N.C. Department of Commerce to promote North Carolina’s outdoor recreation economy and bring new outdoor industry businesses to the state. Government hiring always takes a long time, so we were pleased to learn that the position was filled in February and the Department is starting to think about how to grow our state’s outdoor recreation sector.

That’s especially good news for Western North Carolina, of course, where so many jobs are connected to our mountains, rivers, streams and parks.

Trout fishing is a good example. Nearly 149,000 trout anglers fished approximately 1.6 million days in 2014 – with a total economic benefit of $383 million to the state, according to a study commissioned by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. The study also found that money spent on trout fishing in 2014 supported approximately 3,593 jobs. And since trout live only in mountain streams, this is largely to the benefit of WNC.

Statewide, outdoor recreation supports 260,000 jobs and accounts for $8.3 billion in wages and salaries.

Creating this position is a small reminder of the basic truth those of us at MountainTrue – as well as many forward-thinking business people – have understood for years: a strong economy depends on a clean environment, including efficient, fair and commonsense rules to protect our water and our air.

Special thanks to the leadership of the North Carolina Senate – particularly Alamance County Republican Rick Gunn, who led the way on creating this position, and Department of Commerce Secretary Tony Copeland, who filled it. Henderson County’s Senator Chuck Edwards and Rep. Chuck McGrady as well as Buncombe County’s Representative Brian Turner also lent a hand.

At a time when North Carolina’s government can seem at war with itself, the bipartisan effort to champion outdoor recreation and economic development is a welcome step in the right direction.

General Assembly to Reconvene in May

The General Assembly is set to return to session on May 16th. A court decision or a veto from Governor Cooper could bring them back into session earlier, but for now, the legislature is closed with no plans to reconvene until the spring.

Celebrate Earth Day All Month Long

Audrey & Frank Peterman are tenacious advocates for breaking the color barrier and making America’s natural treasures accessible to all Americans regardless of race. They will give the keynote address at UNCA’s Spring Greenfest 2018 on March 26.

Action Expired

With great natural beauty come great advocates.

Many organizations have formed over the years to preserve Western North Carolina’s natural places and unique character. That’s why this year, MountainTrue and more than 20 area conservation and environmental organizations are combining forces to celebrate Earth Day throughout the entire month of April.

We’re calling this collective effort WNC For The Planet, and we’re teaming up with local businesses, universities, community groups and individuals like you for a month of environmental service, educational opportunities, and celebrations in Asheville and across Western North Carolina.

Susan Bean, Community Engagement Manager for MountainTrue, worked with an organizing committee that included leaders from RiverLink, Friends of the Smokies, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, Asheville Greenworks and New Belgium Brewing Company. “Once we had the broad strokes of an idea – that Earth Month is a great opportunity for all of us to come together and make the biggest impact possible – things really picked up steam. The enthusiasm from our partners and the wider community has been amazing.”

As part of the effort, WNC for the Planet launched an online community calendar at wncfortheplanet.org with educational and service opportunities for people of all ages and from all walks of life. Come hear Audrey & Frank Peterman speak on March 26 at UNCA about their book, Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care. Recycle items that might otherwise end up in the landfill at Asheville GreenWorks’ Hard 2 Recycle event, and catch a screening of the documentary Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry put on by the Organic Growers School. Or, learn how to build a bat box, restore native plant and animal habitats, and weatherize your home to fight climate change.

Keller Williams Realty and Movement Mortgage pitched in for a stream clean up last year.

WNC For The Planet also includes a Business & Community Challenge allowing area businesses, civic organizations and community groups to create teams and compete for prizes and bragging rights. Here’s how it works: Each team earns Planet Points according to how much you accomplish at WNC For the Planet events – how much trash you collect, how many trees you plant, etc. – and at the end of the month we rank your team against other teams. The harder your team works, the more points you earn. The more points you earn, the more you’ve helped keep Western North Carolina beautiful.

WNC for the Planet’s Earth Month culminates with a weekend of celebrations, including Earth Day Kids’ Festival with RiverLink on Saturday, April 21st, and MountainTrue’s annual Earth Day Vigil with faith groups on Sunday, April 22nd. Join us for a final Earth Day party to celebrate our hardworking volunteers and environmental advocates at New Belgium Brewing Company.

Want To See For Yourself?

Check out the WNC For the Planet Events Calendar

Series of Expert Panels to Discuss Future of Nantahala & Pisgah National Forests in Sylva, Boone, Brevard and Andrews this March

Media Contact:

Eliza Stokes, MountainTrue Advocacy & Communications Associate
Email: eliza@mountaintrue.org Phone: 828-258-8737 ext. 218

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sylva, N.C. – Experts representing a diverse group of conservation, recreation and business interests will take part in a series of special panel events on the future of the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests this March. The panels, which will be held in Sylva, Boone, Brevard, and Andrews, will present visions for a win-win forest management plan that allows all interests to co-exist and thrive in Western North Carolina’s national forests.

The Forest Plan Determines the Future of Our Forests

This year, the U.S. Forest Service will release the first draft of a new forest management plan for Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests. This big-picture plan sets the ground rules for all activities in the forests for the next fifteen years or more: from wildlife management and timber sales on public lands to the hiking, fishing and mountain biking for which our region is famous.

Comprising more than a million acres combined, Nantahala and Pisgah are a central part of our natural and cultural heritage and a driver of our region’s economy. Everyone who loves our forests has an issue they care about that will be impacted by the new forest management plan.

We’re Working Together for a Plan That Benefits Everyone

In the spirit of cooperation, the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Partnership was formed to gather all forest interest groups into the same room at once: timber, water, wildlife, recreation, wilderness and more. We don’t leave anyone behind, and we believe it’s critical that everyone be willing to support everyone else’s values with the expectation that the support will be reciprocal. For the past five years, the Partnership has come up with a vision and a set of recommendations for a forest plan that supports all forest interests at once. The Forest Service has also received recommendations from other groups participating in the forest plan revision, and now we want to share the best of those ideas with the wider public.

The panel schedules are as follows:

Sylva

March 15 at the Jackson County Public Library, 6-7:30pm

Panelists: Josh Kelly, Public Lands Field Biologist for MountainTrue

Tommy Cabe, Tribal Forest Resource Specialist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Andrea Leslie, Habitat Conservation Coordinator for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission

Bill Kane, Board Member of the NC Wildlife Federation

Boone

March 22 at the Watauga County Public Library, 6-7:30pm

Panelists: Josh Kelly, Public Lands Field Biologist for MountainTrue

Julie White, Director of the Southern Off-Road Mountain Bicycle Association (SORBA)

Jim Sitts, Appalachian Timber Manager for Columbia Forest Products

Curtis Smalling, Director of Conservation for Audubon North Carolina in Boone

Deirdre Perot, Representative of BackCountry Horsemen of Pisgah

Brevard

March 27 at the Transylvania County Public Library, 6-7:30pm

Panelists: Tom Thomas, President of Back Country Horsemen of NC and Member of

North Carolina Horse Council

Megan Sutton, Southern Blue Ridge Program Director of The Nature Conservancy

David Whitmire, Fish & Wildlife Conservation Council and Co-Owner of Headwaters Outfitters

Kevin Colburn, National Stewardship Director of American Whitewater

Fred Hardin, Forester with Gilkey Lumber Company

Andrews

March 29 at the Andrews Community Center, 6-7:30pm

Panelists: Callie Moore, Executive Director of the Hiwassee Watershed Coalition

Tommy Cabe, Tribal Forest Resource Specialist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Sophia Paulos, Economic Development Director of Graham County

Chris Coxen, District Biologist for the National Wild Turkey Federation

The panels in Sylva, Boone and Andrews will be moderated by journalist and professor of economics at Blue Ridge Community College Jack Igelman. The panel in Brevard will be moderated by Lee McMinn of the Transylvania County Resources Council. The events are free and open to the public, and will include a question-and-answer portion with the audience at the end. Refreshments will be provided.

The panel events are sponsored by MountainTrue and the following members of the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Partnership: Access Fund, American Whitewater, Backcountry Horsemen of NC, Carolina Land & Lakes RC&D, Columbia Forest Products, Defenders of Wildlife, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition, International Mountain Bicycling Association, North Carolina Horse Council, North Carolina Youth Camp Association, Root Cause, Southern Appalachian Mineral Society, Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, the Wilderness Society, and Wild South. The panel in Brevard is also sponsored by the Fish & Wildlife Conservation Council.

For more information, visit: https://mountaintrue.org

RSVP for the event on Facebook:

Sylva: https://www.facebook.com/events/192008638062642/

Boone: https://www.facebook.com/events/152570672114961/

Brevard: https://www.facebook.com/events/170391063741025/

Andrews: https://www.facebook.com/events/340141849725131/

About MountainTrue:
MountainTrue is the oldest grassroots environmental non-profit in North Carolina and champions resilient forests, clean waters and healthy communities. We engage in policy advocacy at all levels of government, local project advocacy, and on-the-ground environmental restoration projects across 23 counties in our region.

About the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Partnership:
The Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Partnership strives to create a lasting voice for innovative management and public investment in the public forests of North Carolina’s mountains for the future. We envision a thriving, resilient forest within its natural range of variation, able to support healthy ecosystems, wildlife populations, local economies, and traditional uses. We envision a forest with the connectivity and integrity to remain resilient in the face of the changes and challenges of the future.

About the WNC Fish & Wildlife Conservation Council:

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Council, formed by a variety of sportsmen and other wildlife interests, supports the sound management and conservation of all wildlife resources in the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest and provides support and positive guidance to ensure a diversity of wildlife thrives there.

###

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic Play for Clean Water

Media Contact: Teela Waggoner – 828-989-3587, teela.waggoner@movementmortgage.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Asheville, NC – The Waggoner Team with Movement Mortgage, the Matt and Molly Team of Keller Williams Realty, and 98.1 The River present George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, with Lyric opening.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist and legendary funk act, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic will light up the Salvage Station on Friday, May 11 to raise money for drinking water wells in Togo, West Africa. George Clinton revolutionized R&B during the ’70s, twisting soul music into funk by adding influences from several late-’60s heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Sly Stone. Decades of hits followed and Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic continue to wow crowds with some of the best live shows around. One of Asheville’s most popular bands will rock their soulful sound with an acoustic set for the VIP event and rock her entire band to open the show.

MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper works with the Yoto River Waterkeeper in Togo to provide safe, potable water, and proceeds from the show will fund a drinking water well in rural west Africa. This is an area where most people lack access to clean drinking water and additional clean drinking water sources are desperately needed. This partnership has already created three wells that now provide clean drinking water to hundreds of Togolese.

Tickets: On sale Thursday March 1st at 10am.

$29 presale and $34 at the door.

VIP tickets: $125 include a preparty at the Salvage Station from 5-7pm with appearance by George Clinton, acoustic set by the talented Lyric, full catered meal, drinks, and roped off viewing area with private bar. Get tickets at salvagestation.com.

MT Raleigh Report – Feb. 19: GenX Gridlock in the General Assembly

Over the last month, the North Carolina General Assembly has met twice in “special session” to consider legislation to address one of the most high-profile threats to our state’s water quality – and public health – in recent years. Of course, we’re referring to the discovery of GenX, an “emerging contaminant” in the Cape Fear River as well as other public drinking water supplies in North Carolina.

GenX is the commonly used term for a chemical compound produced to make Teflon, which is used to make nonstick coating surfaces for cookware.

GenX and its chemical cousins – other perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds – are poorly studied, generally do not break down in the environment, cannot be removed by most water treatment techniques, can behave strangely in the human body and have largely unknown health risks.

Unfortunately, despite statewide media attention and widespread public concern, the General Assembly has been unable to approve legislation to address this pressing problem. You may recall that MountainTrue first reported on the GenX issue in a Special Report in November 2017.

The General Assembly’s recent inaction reflects a growing split between the GOP-controlled House, which is increasingly more interested in responding to the GenX issue, and the GOP-controlled Senate, which continues to balk at the demands of Gov. Roy Cooper – and the House – for increased investment in the state agencies charged with responding to the GenX issue.

This split came into high profile in the legislature’s special session in early January, when House Republicans offered to provide the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) with $2.3 million for staff and equipment to address GenX. When the Senate refused to consider the idea, House Republicans ran the bill anyway, got a unanimous, bipartisan vote in support of the proposal and sent it over to the Senate, which refused to even take the legislation up for debate.

Fast-forward almost a month later, to Feb. 7, when legislators arrived in Raleigh for another special session. This time it was the Senate’s turn to take up the GenX issue. Like the House a month before, the Senate offered DEQ more than $2 million in one-time funding. But, in an awkwardly worded bill, the Senate restricted the money’s use to a limited scope of work that did not include permanent funding for the new staff and equipment Cooper and Department officials say they need to respond to GenX.

The Senate approved the bill along partisan lines, but this time it was the House that refused to consider the bill. The result was another stalemate that no one in Raleigh expects will end any time soon.

What’s behind the Senate’s reluctance to invest in the state’s response to GenX? Many Senate GOP members are unwilling to spend taxpayer dollars on GenX as a result of their belief that the Cooper administration and DEQ were slow to respond to the issue and won’t put the funding to good use.

The House bill, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said in a statement, “does nothing to prevent GenX from going into the water supply. It leaves North Carolina taxpayers holding the bag for expenditures that should be paid for by the company responsible for the pollution, fails to give DEQ authority to do anything they can’t already do, and authorizes the purchase of expensive equipment that the state can already access for free.”

What Berger and his Senate colleagues fail to acknowledge however is the strain responding to the GenX issue is putting on the Department and its backlog of water quality permits awaiting processing because of staff shortages. It is a sad irony that just as DEQ was looking into the GenX issue last year, the legislature was cutting its budget.

Now we have a stalemate over a growing pollution problem that may affect hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians, is straining the already too-meager resources of state regulatory agencies and which the legislature either can’t or won’t address.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of people living near the Chemours plant are drinking bottled water after their wells have tested positive for GenX. There are also growing concerns – still being explored by DEQ – about food supplies in the region after GenX was discovered in honey harvested near the Chemours site. And state officials acknowledge that for those living near Chemours, airborne GenX may be a bigger threat than the waterborne version of the compound, so they have expanded their testing to include both.

Oh, and don’t forget that GenX has also been detected in treated water in Cary and Chatham County.

For MountainTrue, our priorities for this issue are the same ones we listed for you several months ago. We believe it is well past time for the legislature (and DEQ for that matter) to respond to the GenX situation, both in the Cape Fear region and statewide. This response should include:

A full audit of all industrial discharges into North Carolina rivers and streams so that we understand what chemicals are being discharged into our water;
Expanded state investment in water quality monitoring to detect emerging contaminants in all public drinking water supplies;
Full enforcement of the state’s authority under the Clean Water Act to detect emerging contaminants and to ensure they do not pose a risk to human health or the environment until proven otherwise;
Full public disclosure of the results of water monitoring and discharge audits so that everyone — including the public — understands what is in our water; and
A transparent, open decision-making process to determine the best way to eliminate, reduce and prevent emerging contaminants in public drinking water.

MountainStrong Hurricane Recovery Fund