Thanks to those of you who have reached out to your legislators in support of a strong bill to address GenX contamination of the Cape Fear River and other chemical contamination of North Carolina’s drinking water sources.
The GenX proposal - House Bill 972 and Senate Bill 724 - was not taken up this week. That means there’s still time to weigh in. Sierra Club is advocating for adequate funding for the Department of Environmental Quality to monitor our waters and enforce environmental laws against polluters like Chemours. The current GenX proposal falls short of these goals.
Opportunity for Action
If you haven’t done so yet, please use our action alert form to contact your House representative and ask for a strong bill to address GenX.
Mystery Budget Coming Soon
There wasn’t much public action at the General Assembly this week as budget negotiations continued behind the scenes. This year, the state budget will be inserted into a pre-existing bill that is “in conference” to allow a shorter timeline for passage under parliamentary rules. The minority party opposes this process as secretive while majority party members say it’s efficient.
What does this mean for the environment? It means less opportunity for public review and input on any environmental policy proposals that may be included in the budget. For example, in past budgets we’ve seen delays of the Jordan and Falls Lake cleanup rules, an unwise investment in SolarBee water mixers (pictured) that failed to clean lake water, and funding to treat drinking water reservoirs with algaecides - a plan that was ultimately disallowed by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Environmental policy changes should be subject to public scrutiny and debate, not developed behind closed doors. Read more about this year’s budget process in this story from WUNC.
Expectations are that the budget will be released publicly Monday evening in advance of a Joint Appropriations Committee meeting on Tuesday morning. If there are environmental provisions in the budget, we may ask you to take quick action early next week!