RALEIGH, North Carolina, July 17, 2008 (ENS) – A package of compromise coastal stormwater rules is headed to the desk of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley after the state House passed them Monday night.

The state Senate has already passed the measure, and the governor is expected to sign it.

The new legislation will replace rules adopted earlier this year by the state Environmental Management Commission designed to control pollution caused by runoff that would have taken effect on August 1..

The new measure will apply to 20 counties along the North Carolina coast.

It will make pockets of low-density development acceptable without triggering provisions of the rules. Developers will be allowed to create an additional 10,000 feet of “impervious surface,” such as roofs or parking lots, before the rules take effect.

Developers have to contain a smaller amount of runoff than the Environmental Management Commission rules called for. The original rules required developers to control runoff resulting from 3.5 inches of rain in residential developments.

Now they will be required to control only the first 1.5 inches of rain.

Some exemptions from buffer requirements will be allowed under the compromise rules.

The newly approved rules allow for exclusions of projects that have already received state and local permits. Existing homes and businesses could also be replaced without having to comply with the new rules.

The Environmental Management Commission rules did not permit these exclusions.

The new measure retains the commission’s original proposal that developers who have an impervious surface exceeding 12 percent of the property must install runoff controls such as cisterns, ponds, and rain gardens and rainwater collection.

If signed by the governor, the newly passed compromise rules will take effect on October 1.

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RALEIGH, North Carolina, May 22, 2008 (ENS) – A bill to halt the implementation of new stormwater rules was introduced in the North Carolina House of Representatives last week, and a bill is expected to show up in the state Senate shortly.

Twelve eastern North Carolina counties hired lobbyist Joe McClees to get the bills introduced in an attempt to keep the expensive new stormwater system from ever being built, according to the local paper, the “Washington Daily News.”

If state legislators fail to act within the first 30 days of the short session of the legislature that began May 13, the new stormwater rules will go into effect, but the 12 eastern counties say they cannot afford to meet the requirements.

The rules are based on a 2005 study by the North Carolina Division of Water Quality that found the stormwater mitigation techniques being used were not effective in preventing the closure of shellfish waters caused by pollution from runoff.

McClees and representatives of the 12 inland-coastal counties believe the findings of that study are not accurate and particularly that the cost of the new rules to developers and property owners in their area has not been addressed.

McClees says, “To implement some of the things these rules call for would cost between $7,000 and $10,000 per lot, and that’s without any engineering costs.”

The proposed rule changes tighten triggers that require stormwater permits and mitigation measures for both new and older developments.

Managers of the 12 coastal counties contend the new rules would have adverse economic impacts by hindering development on an already-struggling region.

The bill, filed as H2138, is titled “An act to disapprove a rule to manage stormwater in coastal counties.”

The bill reads, “Stormwater Requirements: Coastal Counties as adopted by the Environmental Management Commission on January 10, 2008, and approved by the Rules Review Commission on March 20, 2008, is disapproved.”

If enacted, the measure will effectively halt the implementation of the new rules. When asked which legislators he was targeting with his message that the rules are flawed, McClees said, “all of them.”

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