North Carolina is in a race to the bottom-again! I’ve told you how it suspended the Jordan Lake rules, years in the making, because some upstream polluters don’t care if Cary, Morrisville and Apex Citizens have clean drinking water. And they have deep pockets. The rules for the lake had barely gone into effect when the GOP leaders in the GA claimed they didn’t “work” and voted to suspend them. While the worst governor in America runs ads pretending to care about water quality, he and the GA have installed a contemptuous regulatory staff, which merely pretends to regulate and oversee water quality. Thanks to a grudging GA, already in place since 2010, the disregard for clean water was already in place before this governor took office though. He’s just helping make it all worse. Now there’s more in the ever-worsening picture for NC water quality. I’ll quote the Raleigh News and Observer to show you I do not exaggerate:
Once an innovative leader in water quality science, North Carolina has fallen behind in meeting federal pollution standards.
North Carolina is the only state in its EPA region – which includes Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida – that has not adopted EPA-approved rules on measuring toxic metals like arsenic, cadmium, copper, silver and zinc in its water, according to a letter the EPA sent on July 31 to Tom Reeder, the director of the Division of Water Resources, within the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Read more here
There’s more below the fold…
Worse than Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama! You have to tried hard to accomplish that dishonor.
The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is supposed to have public hearings and the make proposals to improve water quality every three years. As the News and Observer notes, though, “proposed changes are not a fix.” But the bottom line is the state must at minimum meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. NC isn’t doing that much anymore.
The head of the Water Resources planning division states that what’s holding things up is a 2011 bill complicating the requirement that the state identify the financial impact of any changes before they can go into effect. It seems are directed at grinding improved water quality to a halt. But, the former head of this office had completed the budget for the proposed changes in 2011 before she left office. She couldn’t understand why the hearing hasn’t happened yet. Hmmm. Can we say obstruction?
On top of all that, there are also now friends of horizontal fracking throughout state government, especially in the Mining and Energy Commission (MEC) where friends of fracking hold every seat. And they do not care about the consequences to real people under the long reach of the horizontal arms of fracking wells. They reach 1-2 miles outward.
For all these reasons, water quality is in peril in North Carolina. Our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are depending upon us doing better. Heck, the poor recent track record will impact those of us alive now too. Legacy matters. I love my beautiful state. I will work to defend her and change this harmful direction. But know this: Its’ easier to avoid rather than reverse bad governance. Don’t NC Virginia (any more than Virginia already has slid backwards). Virginia cannot afford a Cuccinelli governorship. The man doesn’t even believe in science much less environmental quality.
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