SELC statement on Cooper’s Farm Act veto 

Bill included provision that would remove protections for half of North Carolina’s wetlands 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Today, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the Farm Act, or Senate Bill 582, striking down state legislators’ attempt to remove protections for North Carolina’s wetlands and limit the state’s ability to protect communities, water quality, and wildlife. According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, the bill would cause the loss of protection for half of all state wetlands, or 2.5 million acres. 

The North Carolina legislature included a provision in the omnibus Farm Act, which is usually reserved for provisions that affect farmers, that would prohibit the state from protecting the many acres of wetlands that do not meet the federal definition of “waters of the United States.”  A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling significantly narrowed that definition, substantially increasing the harm that would be caused by the General Assembly’s passage of the bill. That provision would take away protection for millions of acres of wetlands that keep North Carolina communities safe by buffering the effects of intense storms, reduce floods, filter pollution to improve water quality, replenish groundwater reserves, and protect wildlife. 

In response to the announcement, Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney, Derb Carter, sent a letter to Governor Cooper and released the following statement:   

“We applaud Governor Cooper for vetoing the Farm Act on behalf of the people of North Carolina. Our wetlands have incredible value with the ability to retain flood waters, filter pollution, replenish groundwater that most of our citizens rely on for drinking water, and provide habitat to fish and wildlife. I really can’t think of any single action taken during my forty-year career working to protect North Carolina’s environment that will have a greater long term adverse impact on North Carolina’s water quality and natural resources than abandoning state wetlands protections—harm that will be made even worse by the loss of federal protections from the recent Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA. From our unique mountain bogs to namesake Carolina Bays, bottomland swamps, and unique pocosins, our wetlands are a state natural treasure.”