Category Archives: Natural Hazards

N.C. Senate Budget 2014: Environment

The most significant changes:

Oregon Inlet. The single largest allocation of new money ($15 million) would fund an effort to acquire  federal lands surrounding Oregon Inlet and the erosion-threatened  segment of N.C. Highway 12 on Hatteras Island.  The lands targeted for acquisition now make up parts of  Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.  The newly acquired lands would be designated as a state park, but the special budget provision tied to the funding describes the purpose of the acquisition as managing “existing and future transportation corridors” on the Outer Banks.  An earlier post describes the cost (as of 2013) of maintaining Highway 12  in the face of high erosion rates and inlet movement.

Continuing  erosion and storm damage have  made it increasingly difficult to maintain Hwy  12 within the  original right of way.  Going outside the right of way means working on federal lands. The National Park Service and federal wildlife refuge  managers have worked with the state to reach agreement on a number of  previous Hwy 12 maintenance and relocation projects, but conditions have now deteriorated to the point that future projects could involve much more significant impacts to lands in the national seashore and wildlife refuge. Some of the proposed maintenance and relocation options for Hwy 12 also conflict with  the conservation purposes  of the federal  lands.  Management plans for national seashore and wildlife refuge give high priority to maintaining a natural, unobstructed shoreline and  protecting wildlife habitat.

The bill directs the state Department of Administration to begin negotiating an agreement to acquire the federal lands by purchase or exchange of state land for federal land. If efforts to negotiate an agreement fail, the bill directs the department to begin  efforts to acquire the lands by condemnation next year,  Not surprisingly,  the budget provision allows use of some of the funding for litigation expenses. The budget cobbles together the $15 million allocation by transferring a total of  $7 million  from two specific  DENR  fund accounts ($3.5 miilion from each);  appropriating $5 million in new money;  and earmarking an additional $3 million in capital reserves.  One of the two DENR fund accounts  appears to be a Marine Fisheries fund for license revenue;  the budget provision identifies the  fund by  number and  title (the “Advanced License Sales Fund”).

The bill also has language (similar to a provision in the Senate regulatory reform bill) authorizing the Governor to  waive  state coastal development permits and environmental impact statements for projects needed to maintain transportation access to Hatteras Island. As noted in an earlier post, waiver of state environmental review may not actually shorten the permitting process –the Governor’s action cannot affect  federal permits needed for the Hwy 12 projects  and  the state and federal permit reviews have been coordinated for many years to streamline  review. On the other hand, waiving state permits for the project will remove any influence the state might otherwise have on the federal permitting process — taking state environmental permitting staff out of the negotiation entirely,

Coal  Ash. The Senate has proposed to appropriate $1.75 million to DENR to support activities related to regulation of coal ash, including 23 new staff positions. The staff positions would be allocated among the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources (7 total positions – 2 in stormwater and  5 in  dam safety); Division of Waste Management (2 positions); Division of Water Resources (8 positions) and the DENR Secretary’s Office (6 positions). Funding is contingent on passage of Senate Bill 725 (Governor’s Coal Ash Management Act) or similar legislation,

Shale Gas.  The Senate budget appropriates an additional $1.17 million dollars for shale gas activities. Most of the funding ($973,324) would be used for additional geological and geophysical analysis of the shale basins in the state. The remaining funds have been identified for marketing and promoting  the state’s shale gas resources ($100,000); digitizing data ($50,000); and doing more chemical analysis of gas wells  ($50,000).

Transferring Interest Income from DENR Special Funds. DENR has a number of interest-bearing special funds. Some were created to provide a  source of revenue for conservation programs; others receive a combination of fees and tax revenues to fund cleanup of environmental contamination. The Senate budget would transfer all of the interest earned by these funds to the state’s General Fund, reducing the funds available for the originally intended purpose and allowing the legislature to reallocate the interest income for other uses. The conservation  funds affected include the Clean Water Management Trust Fund; the Marine and Estuarine Resources Conservation Fund; the Ecosystem Restoration Fund; the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund; and  the N.C. Marine Resource Fund.

The environmental cleanup funds affected by the transfer of interest income include the Dry-Cleaning Solvent Cleanup Fund;  the Commercial Underground Storage Tank Fund;  the Non-Commercial Underground Storage Tank Fund;  the Inactive Hazardous Sites Fund; the Bernard Allen Emergency Drinking Water Fund;  and a fund supporting the state  Brownfields program for redevelopment of contaminated sites.  Some of the special funds receive revenue from fees and taxes  imposed on a particular commercial activity (such as dry-cleaning and operation of petroleum underground storage tanks)  to address contamination associated with the activity. The proposed transfer would  allow use of the interest income on those fees and taxes for unrelated purposes.

The state Brownfields program (which assists in the redevelopment of contaminated sites)  operates entirely on federal  funds and fees paid by the prospective developers.  The program receives no state appropriations, so the special fund provides the only source of operating funds.  A number of the  environmental cleanup funds (including the Commercial UST Fund) have been chronically underfunded and transfer of the interest income will only further reduce the resources available for assessment and cleanup of contamination.

Marine Fisheries. It is hard to find a plan behind the many changes to the marine fisheries budget. The bill increases a significant number of commercial and recreational fishing  license fees and fees for fish dealers, while slightly  reducing  fees for commercial fishing vessels.  The budget reduces  funding for fisheries conservation by transferring interest income from several special funds to the General Fund and transferring $3.5 million from one  license fee fund account to  a fund  to acquire property on the Outer Banks.  At the same time, the bill eliminates  appropriations for  the At-Sea Observers program (necessary under a state-federal agreement keep some N.C. fisheries open by monitoring the impact on  endangered sea turtles) and shifts  the costs of the program to license fee revenue.  The bill also directs a portion of the higher commercial fishing fees to a new  Commercial Fisheries Resource Fund. The result of all of the moving pieces seems to be higher fees, reduced appropriations, and at the same time a transfer of fisheries fee revenue to other purposes.

Landslide

April 7, 2014.   The recent mudslide in Oregon that killed at least 30 people  occurred in an area with a history of slides extending back to the 1940’s.  A series of studies, including  a 1999 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report,  warned of  the potential for catastrophic failure of the slope.  After receiving another report on the landslide risk from private consultants in 2004,  Snohomish County considered  creating a program to buyout  homes in the area at greatest risk. In the end, the county chose to do a slope stabilization project instead.  (See this Seattle Times article for a history of the Oregon slide area.)

The Oregon disaster has raised (again)  questions about landslide risk and the role of  state and local government in responding to those risks. The questions about availability of landslide hazard information;  communication of risk to property owners and homebuyers;  and the need for regulation of development  on steep slopes have very recent echoes in North Carolina policy debates.

North Carolina can have  hundreds of landslides a year — most in the mountainous western part of the state.   According to this report by WSPA news, the N.C. Geological Survey  estimated 300  landslides, rock slides and slope failures in 2013. Slides in uninhabited areas may do little damage, but the state also has a history of large, dangerous landslides  causing  millions of dollars in property damage and  a number of deaths.  Rock slides periodically close interstate highways and sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway, impeding transportation in western counties for months and requiring costly repairs.

PANORAMIC PeeksCr

Panoramic photo of 2004 Peeks Creek landslide, Macon County, N.C. (noaa.gov)

In 2004, the state experienced over 100 landslides  triggered by just two heavy rainfall events associated with  back-to-back hurricanes (Frances and Ivan).  In September 2004, a slope failure following Hurricane Frances  destroyed one home in a subdivision near Boone and caused eight others to be condemned for occupancy.   The same storm caused a slope failure and debris flow that destroyed a home in Burke County and left a  home in McDowell County on  the edge of an eroded slope. A  week after  Frances, Hurricane Ivan rainfall caused slope failures and debris flows that destroyed homes in Buncombe and Macon counties. The Macon County event  (known as the  Peeks Creek landslide) began near the top of Fishhawk Mountain  and barreled 2.25 miles down the mountain at an estimated  30 miles an hour.  The Peeks Creek disaster  destroyed fifteen homes, killed five people and injured two others.  The event also  caused state and local officials to take steps toward identifying landslide risk for the first time.

PeeksCreek

Photo of Peeks Creek slide damage (N.C. Dept. of Public Safety)

For more information on the Peeks Creek disaster, see the N.C. Geological Survey report and an  analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

After the Peeks Creek slide, the N.C. General Assembly earmarked  funds from the 2005 Hurricane Recovery Act  to start a state landslide hazard mapping program focused on 19 western counties.  Five N.C.  Geological Survey employees began mapping landslide hazard areas in the counties considered to have the greatest landslide risk. By 2010, state geologists had completed landslide hazard maps for four counties (Macon, Henderson, Watauga and Buncombe), using information on historic landslide locations,  soil types and slope data.   The maps can be accessed through links on the N.C. Geological Survey homepage.  

As  state geologists worked on the first landslide hazard maps, the N.C. General Assembly considered several bills to address development on steep slopes.   The 2007 Safe Artificial Slope Construction Act (House Bill 1756)   would have required local governments to  set standards for development on artificially-created steep slopes. The bill also proposed to amend real estate disclosure laws to require notice  to a prospective purchaser of  location  in a landslide hazard area  identified on N.C. Geological Survey maps. The bill encountered resistance from some mountain-area local governments as well as realtors and developers and  never got out of committee. A 2009 bill (also titled the Safe Artificial Slope Construction Act) took a step back and simply proposed a legislative study committee to look at the need for statewide artificial slope construction standards  and disclosure of natural landslide hazards to prospective purchasers. The 2009 bill also failed to get out of committee.

Against this background of resistance to state action on steep slope construction standards and disclosure of natural landslide hazards, the 2011 General Assembly defunded the landslide hazard mapping program. The budget cut  eliminated four of the five landslide hazard mapping positions and brought state mapping efforts to an end.

As the state backed away from any role on landslide hazard mitigation, some local governments in the western part of the state  (including Macon County)  moved ahead with  ordinances on steep slope development.  A few of the 15 counties the N.C. Geological Survey mapping program did not reach have  attempted to map landslide hazard areas using other funding sources.  

The state has returned to the more limited  role of emergency response and disaster relief.   Basic property insurance does not cover landslide damage.  In the 2005 Hurricane Relief Act, the N.C. General Assembly allocated over $200 million in state funds for disaster relief largely focused on western counties that experienced flooding and landslide damage from Frances and Ivan. Uses of the disaster relief funds included “housing buyout and relocation assistance for those persons whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged by debris flows or whose homes are located in a landslide zone”.