Legislature advances an anti-environment proposal that’s stunning in its sweep

You don’t have to be a scientist with a Ph.D. to grasp the state of crisis that afflicts our fragile natural environment these days. Sadly, the list of dire threats to the global biosphere and the species who call it home is as long as your arm and readily apparent to anyone willing to look outside.

Between our rapidly changing climate, the alarming rates at which open space is being developed and species are becoming extinct, and the growing list of human illnesses attributable to pollution – just to name a few of the myriad challenges we confront — the massive scope of the problem is painfully obvious.

And, of course, all these problems (and many more) are on full display in North Carolina.

Especially in the state’s eastern third, increasingly frequent hurricanes and floods have already made climate refugees of thousands of residents. Meanwhile, rapid shifts in habitat brought on by the warming climate have adversely impacted millions of plants and animals from Murphy to Manteo.

Across the state, thanks in large part to the demands of a population that’s doubled and grown more affluent in the last half century, millions of acres of forests, wetlands, farmland, and other open spaces have been (and continue to be) transformed into urban landscapes each year at a breakneck pace.

And then, of course, there are the increasingly worrisome threats posed by toxic pollutants like PFAS and other “forever chemicals,” waste from massive hog and poultry farms, and the huge and frequently precarious mountains of coal ash that the state is only beginning to take on.

If ever there was time for strong – even urgent – public oversight of how and where we build and pollute, this is it.

Unfortunately, this realization continues to elude state Republican legislative leaders. The latest evidence: a new so-called “regulatory reform” bill that’s quickly advancing in Raleigh. As NC Newsline environmental investigative reporter Lisa Sorg reported last week, the 35-page measure represents a veritable Christmas tree of gifts for polluting industries.

Among the destructive changes proposed:

• The bill would place impossible new time burdens to issue pollution permits on the state Division of Water Resources (a group that’s already badly understaffed). The agency would have 30 days to determine whether a water quality application is complete, and 60 days to approve or deny it. If it misses the first deadline, the permit must be deemed “complete,” no matter how flawed or inadequate it is. Failure to meet the second deadline results in automatic issuance of the polluter’s water quality permit.
• Bizarrely, the bill would bar regulators from considering the impacts of a proposed water pollution source (like a new factory) beyond its immediate surrounding area, even if it’s going to, for instance, pollute a stream or lake miles away. Such a rule, of course, ignores the fact – one that’s particularly  obvious to people who get their drinking water from the lower Cape Fear River – that water pollution from multiple sources accumulates.
• The proposal would bar DEQ from limiting the amount of toxic chemicals a polluter discharges into the state’s waterways unless there is a specific numerical standard attached (e.g., such as “X parts per million”). The problem with this is that there are hundreds of chemicals that state and federal regulators know are harmful, but for which they have yet to establish a specific numerical standard. Doing so can take years. It’s for this reason that regulators frequently rely on terms like “free from toxics in toxic amounts” or “free from objectionable taste or odors” for discharges into public waterways. While imperfect, such language provides a means of protecting human health. If this provision were to become law and be implemented (there’s a good argument that it would run afoul of federal rules), polluters would be utterly free to discharge dangerous chemicals like 1,4-Dioxane and PFAS without limit.
• The bill would bar the state from denying a permit for a hog waste lagoon or swine gas project based on civil rights grounds. Lower income people of color have long borne a disproportionate burden when it comes to the often-sickening nuisances posed by giant animal feeding operations and in 2021, a group of Black citizens succeeded in winning some protections via a federal civil rights complaint. The proposal seeks to put an end to that.

None of this is to imply that all would-be polluters are diabolical money grubbers bent on destroying our natural environment and human health. And sometimes, it’s true that regulators can be inefficient, officious and bureaucratic.

But it’s also true that we live in a time in which there is almost no margin for error anymore when it comes to such matters. Having painted ourselves into a dreadfully dangerous corner, humans are simply going to have to learn to cope with more and tougher environmental oversight if they hope to avoid any number of catastrophic outcomes.

It’s for this reason that in a legislative session full of destructive legislation, this disastrous proposal may well top the list.