By Cassie Gavin
Director of Government Relations
Big news from the NC General Assembly this week! The Legislature adjourned until May 16, the start of the 2018 "short session." Check out a good summary of the end-of-session legislative twists and turns by WUNC.
No GenX bill passed
Notably, the Legislature did not pass any bill to address GenX contamination of the Cape Fear River from Chemours’ Fayetteville plant. This is despite the fact that the House in January unanimously passed a bill to provide funding to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for work on this issue. Citizens in Wilmington and nearby areas that get drinking water from the Cape Fear River have been outspoken in asking the Legislature to do something to address this contamination. And Rep. Deb Butler (D - New Hanover) complained in Tuesday’s House session that the Legislature was to adjourn with no action on GenX.
As you may recall, last week the Senate took up the House GenX bill - House Bill 189 - but significantly revised it to the point that DEQ would not have been able to make the staff hires or do the work that the agency deems necessary to address the problem. H 189 would have next gone to the House for a vote of concurrence, but the House did not take up the bill instead referring it to the House River Quality Committee for consideration. That committee will meet on Wednesday of next week at 9:30am; if you’d like to listen to the committee you may do so here. Note that DEQ did this week issue another notice of violation to Chemours ordering the company to take measures to address releases of GenX and other chemicals including air emissions. More details on this enforcement action and the ongoing GenX story are covered by NC Policy Watch here.
Opportunity for action
Thank you for dutifully writing your Representatives and asking for action on GenX. Please continue to reach out to your representatives on this. DEQ and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) leaders have said since summer 2017 that funding is needed to hire more toxicologists to deal with emerging contaminants; this is just one example of something the Legislature could do to begin to address the problem.
Funds for communities along Atlantic Coast Pipeline targeted in education bill
The last bill passed before adjournment was House Bill 90, “Changes to Education and Election Laws,” which is primarily about school class size but also includes a provision addressing the $58 million dollar fund connected with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, long opposed by the Sierra Club, will directly impact over 3,000 acres in North Carolina, permanently impact over 300 acres of forest habitats in the state and will cross 320 water bodies in North Carolina. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) negotiated by the Governor and the companies describing the fund says that it will be used for the following purposes:
- mitigation for impacts on forest habitat, open-space lands, water bodies, and natural resources of communities along the pipeline route;
- economic development in counties impacted by pipeline; and
- extension of renewable energy projects into local communities impacted by the pipeline.
H 90 would require the funds to instead go to schools in the route of the pipeline but there is no guarantee in the bill that the funds will be additional. In other words, the Legislature could, in the short session, reduce the amount of state funds budgeted to the local schools by the same amount. Rep. Darren Jackson (Democratic Leader - Wake) spoke in opposition to this provision noting that it could put the entire MOU and $58 million for communities along the pipeline route at risk.
Another provision in H 90 would add a ninth unaffiliated voter to the eight-member NC State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement; which Rep. Jackson called unconstitutional. Rep. Robert Reives (D - Chatham, Lee) called the bill a Frankenstein measure, as Reps. Marcia Morey (D - Durham), Susan Fisher (D - Buncombe), Ball (D - Wake) and others in the minority party complained about the combination of three distinctly separate bills into one. H 90 passed the House 104-12 because of strong support for the education piece of the bill.
Thanks for your advocacy during this very long 2017 session!