This Week's Feature
Saving North Carolina’s Shellfish Waters
©Dwight Dyke
More than 56,000 acres of North Carolina’s shellfish grounds have been closed over the past 15 years due to pollution. The culprit is polluted stormwater runoff, which has increased as pavement and lawns replace natural vegetation in rapidly developing coastal areas.
SELC has delivered an effective one-two punch of legislative advocacy and litigation to combat this problem.
A Big Win at the State Capitol
In this year’s General Assembly, SELC and its allies achieved a huge victory when lawmakers gave a thumbs up to tough new stormwater controls for developments going up near shellfish waters.
The new regulations will
- Require engineered runoff control systems for any development project near shellfish grounds that covers 12 percent or more of the site with hard surfaces, such as pavement and rooftops. The previous standard was 25 percent.
- Make clear that coastal wetlands are not part of the calculation for site density. Before, a developer could artificially lower the percentage of impervious surface in a project by counting some wetlands as part of the building site.
- Require a 50-foot setback from the water’s edge for any coastal development, not just those near shellfish beds.
Making an Impact with Legal Action
As we championed these new protections, we also have used legal action to shield the state’s coastal waters from pollution. Earlier this year we convinced North Carolina’s Environmental Management Commission to overturn a judge’s ruling that gave a green light to a 38-acre development on Hatteras Island. Runoff from the project would have devastated shellfishing areas in the Pamlico Sound.
>>Read more about coastal stormwater regulations
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