Gov. Roy Cooper today said his short session budget proposal will include $14.5 million to better equip state agencies to address environmental health and safety threats posed by emerging contaminants such as GenX.
The funding for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) would help with laboratory and equipment upgrades, an improved industrial permitting process, and additional employees. The largest portion, $7 million, would add 39 employees to substantially increase water quality sampling and analysis.
Last year, the General Assembly failed to act on Cooper’s request for $2.6 million to allow the two agencies to study GenX contamination in the Cape Fear River.
In response to Cooper’s new budget proposal, Erin Carey, NC Sierra Club coastal programs coordinator, issued the following statement:
“Governor Cooper’s funding would provide DEQ and DHHS the resources they desperately need to decisively and thoroughly tackle the problem of unregulated chemicals in our environment. We hope the legislature will act quickly on this matter to give North Carolinians the confidence that state leaders will put their health and safety ahead of partisan differences.”