By Cassie Gavin
Director of Government Relations
The N.C. General Assembly returned to Raleigh on Wednesday to begin the 2018 short session. The short session is primarily about making corrections to the state budget but other issues often arise.
A major issue facing the state, and especially the Cape Fear River watershed, is GenX contamination. Chemical contamination of drinking water is a broader problem than just GenX. Different types of new, emerging contaminants are showing up in waters across the state, so this problem deserves a statewide response.
Members of the House and Senate filed identical bills (H 972 and S 724) on Thursday that offer a wide-ranging set of policy and funding responses to the the GenX issue. Representatives Ted Davis and Holly Grange (New Hanover), Frank Iler (Brunswick), and William Brisson (Bladen, Johnston, Sampson) are the sponsors of the House bill and Senators Michael Lee (New Hanover), Bill Rabon (Bladen, Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender) and Wesley Meredith (Cumberland) are sponsors of the Senate version.
The proposal has significant problems and is not a sufficient response to GenX and emerging contaminants. Firstly, the bill creates confusion by suggesting that it gives the governor authority that his office does not already have to shut down Chemours (the company releasing GenX into the Cape Fear River). Rather than giving the governor new authority, the bill creates new roadblocks to enforcement of existing air and water laws.
Additionally, the proposal would provide $8 million in funding to UNC’s Environmental Policy Collaboratory for research, monitoring and analysis related to GenX. But the bill would only provide approximately $2.3 million to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, while giving the agency new set of responsibilities. The proposal falls far short of Governor Cooper’s April 2018 request for nearly $14 million for DEQ to deal with GenX and the chemical contamination of drinking waters across the state.
The proposal also continues the Senate’s trend toward using the the UNC Collaboratory as a legislative research shop, after seven years of starving DEQ of resources. From 2010 to 2016, the General Assembly slashed DEQ water quality and water resources staff by 18 percent. The cuts to water programs included a 41 percent reduction in water quality staff in DEQ regional offices and the 2017-2018 state budget requires DEQ to cut an additional $1.8 million. DEQ is responsible for addressing the many water quality issues facing the state, including coal ash pollution, GenX, and impaired waters. But instead of adequately supporting DEQ, the Senate proposes funding for the UNC Collaboratory.
A group of House Democrats also filed a GenX bill this week - House Bill 968, which would largely implement the governor’s requests related to GenX. The legislation is sponsored by Representatives Deb Butler (New Hanover), Pricey Harrison (Guilford), and Billy Richardson and Elmer Floyd (Cumberland). Learn more about H 968 in this NC Policy Watch story. And please thank these legislators for responding to the threat of emerging contaminants in our drinking water.
Since the short session is likely to be very short, there is little time to advocate for improvements to this legislation, so please take action now by calling or emailing your legislators.
Opportunity to Take Action
Please contact your House Representative and ask them to ensure that any GenX bill provides adequate resources to the Department of Environmental Quality, since that is the agency responsible for enforcing environmental laws. Point out that House Bill 972 falls short.