Legislation involving the N.C. Water Allocation study
From Water Wiki
2009
On March 24 and 25, 2009, bills were introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly to enact the recommendations of the water allocation study.
- The Water Resources Policy Act of 2009 (WRPA) was introduced by Sen. Dan Clodfelter as S. 907. Co-sponsors were Sens. Albertson, Hartsell and Swindell. WRPA as introduced is a comprehensive enactment of the study's recommendations, other than river basin re-definition.
- House Bill 802, introduced by Reps. Lucy Allen and Pryor Gibson, handles the meshing ot river basin definitions to make them identical for water resources and water quality purposes. S. 833, introduced by Sen. Clodfelter, is identical to H. 802.
On April 6, 2009, Reps. Lucy Allen, Pryor Gibson and Cullie Tarleton (along with co-sponsors M. Alexander; Dockham; Faison; Harrison; Insko; Lucas; Samuelson) introduced H 1101, the House version of WRPA.
In 2009, the General Assembly decided not to take up these bills in committee, but rather to have stakeholder input and leave the topics open for further discussion and informal debate.
2010
On May 17, 2010, Reps Gibson & Harrison introduced H 1763, Improve River Basin Modeling and H 1765, IBT Enforcement & Notice, as recommended by the Environmental Review Commission.
Sens Clodfelter and Kinnaird introduced S 1169, IBT Enforcement & Notice and S 1170, Improve River Basin Modeling, as recommended by the ERC.
Reps Crawford, Gillespie, Owens & Tarleton introduced a package of bills recommended by the legislative study committee on water & wastewater infrastructure --H 1743 - H 1751.
On June 29, 2010, in the face of what appeared to be one of the shortest sessions in recent history--with a budget agreement in place--the Senate Agriculture and Environment committee took up the package of water infrastructure bills as well as the river basin modeling bill. The modeling bill had been calendared for committee consideration on June 24, but it was pulled in the face of concern from both business and environmental stakeholders. The bill had gone through several versions resulting from informal stakeholder meetings prior to June 24. After being pulled from the committee agenda, Sen. Clodfelter called the major concerned stakeholders together for a meeting on the morning of June 25, where concerns and possible solutions were aired. The possibility of a consensus appeared after an hour or so of discussion, and in the next several days yet more versions of the draft bill were circulated.
On June 29, while the stakeholders continued last minute attempts to tweak the bill and address concerns right up to the opening of the meeting, the Senate Agriculture and Environment committee moved the provisions of H 1743 into another of the water infrastructure bills, H 1746; passed the whole package of water infrastructure bills with only one question (Sen. Bingham: Q: is there any funding being provided for the study of infrastructure needs and the needs survey? A: no, there is no funding, so we are giving it to the University and DENR...); and passed the modeling bill as a committee substitute to H 1743, with one significant amendment by Sen. Clodfelter to address some of the last minute concerns of major water users. The bill passed second reading in the Senate on June 30.
2011
S 427 (Clodfelter) Primarily about requiring efficiency improvements in community water systems
S 492 (Rouzer, Jackson, East) Agriculture tries to "go its own way"
S 504(Hartsell) Creates State Water Infrastructure Authority and consolidates water infrastructure funding
H 586 (Gillespie) Enhance Water Supply Funding Enabling and encouraging Clean Water Management Trust Fund to protect water supplies and potential water supplies
H 609 (McGrady) Promote Water Supply Development Sets path for state/local cooperation on water supply development
H 787 NC Water Efficiency Act (McGrady, Samuelson, Stam, Harrison) Water efficiency
Of these, only H 609 (McGrady) Promote Water Supply Development was ratified. Several did cross over, though, and remain active in Senate Environment. As the session adjourned for the first time in late June, 2011, drought status spread to over half the counties. The east was in severe drought. Water resources will clearly be on the mind of the major stakeholders and several members of the legislature.
S. 676 became S.L. 2011-255, Clarify Water & Well Rights/Private Property. It prohibits local governments and other persons from unreasonably withholding or interfering with permits to construct wells. As first filed, it also expressly undermined water systems' ability to require hookups to central water and sewer systems, but those provisions were removed in light of systems' concerns about financing service extensions.
H.643, S.L. 2011-298, exempts transfers of water that serve to supplement groundwater in the Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area (15 counties in the inner coastal plain of North Carolina). As such it represents exactly the sort of piecemeal approach to water allocation reform that the Water Allocation Study predicted would become more commonplace with increasing scarcity. The billl also directs the EMC to study whether the capacity use area concept is consistent with the interbasin transfer restrictions.
