Registration and Reporting

From Water Wiki

North Carolina has requirements for registering water withdrawals and periodic reporting on withdrawals. However, as with most states rooted in riparianism, the requirements are fairly weak. This weakness was revealed in the droughts of 2000-2002 and 2007, as several  major streams dried up suddenly and almost completely (South Yadkin, which supplied the City of Statesville; the First Broad River, which supplied Shelby; and tributaries in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico basins) and no one knew who was withdrawing the water upstream from major municipal intakes.

Registration
G.S. 143-215.22H  requires registration of all expected withdrawals and transfers of 100,000 gallons per day or more. Agriculture, though, has a special exception: a threshold of 1,000,000 (MgD):
"Subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall not apply to a person who withdraws or transfers less than 1,000,000 gallons per day of water for activities directly related or incidental to the production of crops, fruits, vegetables, ornamental and flowering plants, dairy products, livestock, poultry, and other agricultural products."

There is also an exception for public water supplies if they meet their water supply plan requirements.

Updates to the registration are required every five years.

Enforcement is limited to $5/day penalties with a $500 cap.

This weak enforcement provision is surely one reason why there is widespread noncompliance with the registration requirements, as the Division of Water Resources discovered in 2007 when comparing  the number of golf courses in the state (most of which use well over 100,000 gpd to irrigate in the summer) to the number that had registered.

Reporting

The registration process, discussed above, requires water users to look ahead and estimate the amount of water they expect to withdraw or transfer over each 5 year registration period. By contrast, the reporting process, required by 15A NCAC 02E.0604,  requires all registered water users to look back and annually report the amount of water they actually withdrew or transferred. 

Agricultural Reporting

A summary of the use thresholds of agricultural reporting requirements in other states in the region compared with current NC law:

Thresholds

• Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi require agricultural users to report withdrawals if they use more than 100,000 gallons per day (gpd).
• Florida thresholds vary between water management districts, but all are triggered at less than 100,000 gpd. Florida also requires users to report the amount of consumptive use, a more rigorous requirement than withdrawal volume.
• NC requires reporting for withdrawals in excess of 1,000,000 gpd.

Withdrawal Permits

• Five Southeastern states require permits to withdraw water.
• NC water users are required to register water withdrawal (outside of the Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area).

For more information about water reporting and registration policies in the Southeastern United States, see “Dying of Thirst by the Side of the Fountain: Water Use Data Collection Policies in North Carolina and Their Implications for Future Water Allocation” by Alexandra Tollette, Master of Public Policy, Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, April 2008, at www.nicholas.duke.edu/institute/niinnc.html.