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REPORT: “A Pandemic’s Impact – Utility Disconnections, Evictions & Houselessness”
Clean Water for NC has been involved in advocating for low-income North Carolinians against utility rate increases for years, and we saw new concerns emerge with COVID’s significant financial hardship for many families nationally and in North Carolina. Staff, along with volunteer Lee Barnes, explored the nuances and impacts of the pandemic on utility insecurity, eviction insecurity, and houselessness in the U.S., and specifically North Carolina, during COVID-19. Read the Report: "A Pandemic's Impact" The Utility and eviction moratoria are discussed in the context of race and class, especially considering access to utilities and reasonably priced rent before the pandemic as compared to during. The nature of utility shut-offs and why utility access is so important during a pandemic is covered in some detail, and there is discussion of private vs. public water utilities. We examine types of evictions and the legal nature of these evictions, along with the geographic patterns of evictions in the United States. The emotional, financial, and medical impacts of houselessness on Americans, especially during the pandemic, and especially during the climate crisis, are explored, as well as their racial context. We also include resources and highlight organizations providing assistance. Clean Water for NC aims to demonstrate our commitment to holistically considering the issues facing underserved communities. We hope state policies better protect BIPOC communities facing water disconnections, higher rates of eviction, and unhoused status. Read the Report: "A Pandemic's Impact"
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Is your well water safe to drink? New resource from UNC-Chapel Hill, partners can help you decide
Is your well water safe to drink? New resource from UNC-Chapel Hill, partners can help you decide Story by: Andrew George, Community Engagement Coordinator | UNC Institute for the Environment Press contact: Emily Williams, Director of Community and University Relations | UNC Institute for the Environment, [email protected], (919) 962-0965 People who rely on private well water in North Carolina have a better chance of learning whether their well water is safe to drink thanks to an initiative of the UNC School of Law Well Water Pro Bono Project, the UNC Superfund Research Program (UNC SRP), the environmental non-profit Clean Water for North Carolina (CWFNC), NC Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS), Division of Public Health, Private Well and Health Program, and the NC Real Estate Commission. The team is engaged in a collaborative effort to provide North Carolinians with information they need to assess the safety of their well water. In October 2021, law students partnered with the NC Real Estate Commission to publish a brochure describing common well water contaminants, how to test for them, and resources for removing them when present. With UNC SRP and CWFNC, the team designed the brochure to inform realtors, property owners, and home buyers about the need for regular well testing as well as how to test well water and opportunities to reduce the cost of testing. An estimated 2.5 million people in NC rely on private wells for their drinking water. Although the state has the fifth largest population of well users in the country, drinking water from private wells is not regulated by state or federal agencies. As a result, most well water is not tested. Many contaminants cannot be tasted, smelled, or seen, making well testing the only way to know if contaminants are present and vital to protecting health or property. “North Carolina does not require real estate transactions to include a well water test, unless there is a known contaminant that the seller has a duty to disclose,” says Professor Maria Savasta-Kennedy, the author of North Carolina’s Environmental Law Practice Guide, who teaches environmental law and environmental justice at UNC School of Law. “Neither the federal Safe Drinking Water Act nor other federal or state regulation governs what is in your well water and how safe it is to drink.” Savasta-Kennedy supervises the Well Water Pro Bono Project, along with Cathy Cralle Jones, senior litigator with the Law Offices of F. Bryan Brice Jr. in Raleigh, who first brought the project to the law school. “The North Carolina Real Estate Commission is thrilled to be involved in bringing these much-needed resources to consumers,” said Charlie Moody, assistant director for the Regulatory Affairs Division of the NC Real Estate Commission. “Additionally, these materials will assist real estate brokers in educating their clients about the importance of well water testing.” When a new well is constructed in North Carolina, the local health department is required to conduct an initial test for a limited number of contaminants (N.C. Gen. Stat. 87-97), but ongoing testing is not required. Additionally, testing is not required for any wells installed prior to 2008. Radon, a prevalent, naturally occurring contaminant in the state, and emerging contaminants such as PFAS and GenX are not included on the list of contaminants that must be tested. “This effort to increase well water testing during real estate transactions complements our ongoing work to support private well users with cutting edge science and potential solutions when contamination is found,” said Rebecca Fry, director of the UNC SRP. “With our community partners, we will continue to incorporate the best science into policy dialogues, so private well users can feel confident making decisions about their drinking water to protect their families and communities.” The next steps include sharing this information broadly, and CWFNC is positioned to take on some of that work. According to Rachel Velez, CWFNC’s Water Justice program director, “absent state and federal regulations for private wells, we are excited to explore creative solutions for protecting well users. We look forward to engaging our statewide membership to better understand the obstacles rural and low-income private well users face when trying to provide a safe drinking water source for their households.” If you are a private well user and would like more information about this effort and research projects to improve drinking water in NC, please visit the UNC Superfund Research Project web page: https://sph.unc.edu/superfund-pages/cec/. For more information about Well Water Pro Bono Project at UNC School of Law, please visit https://law.unc.edu/news/2021/10/well-water-testing-pro-bono-project/.
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A bill stopping NC governments from banning natural gas heads to governor’s desk
By: Adam Wagner, Raleigh News & Observer November 30, 2021 The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation Monday that would prevent local governments from banning the use of energy sources, like natural gas, in new construction or renovations. House Bill 220 will now head to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. If he signs the bill, North Carolina would join 20 other states in passing similar legislation. No local governments in North Carolina have moved to ban the use of natural gas in construction, and environmental groups called for Cooper to veto the legislation moments after the House voted to concur. Supporters of the legislation…
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The legislature’s environmental budget: What’s in it, how much, and why it matters to you
By: Lisa Sorg, NC Policy Watch November 17, 2021 For the past 10 years, Republican-led majorities in the General Assembly have sacked the Department of Environmental Quality budget, apparent punishment for enforcing, even meagerly, state and federal environmental regulations. Yet, for the first time since 2017, the legislature’s new proposed budget for DEQ exceeds $100 million. Although substantially less than Gov. Cooper’s proposal of $145 million, and still far short of what the agency needs to fulfill its mission, breaking the $100 million barrier is significant. So what does this mean to the run-of-the-mill individual taxpayer whose checks float state government? A review of the budget documents reveal some key appropriations, as well as items that bear watching, and of course, some questionable expenditures. Department of Environmental Quality Overall budget: $106.9 million in 2021-22 and $102 million in 2022-23 Image: Adobe Stock Item: Five new full-time positions for the “Emerging Compounds Unit,” devoted to mapping and determining the sources of PFAS and 1,4-Dioxane in waterways and drinking water. Plus two temporary positions in this unit will become permanent. Amount: $685,926 each year Why it matters: “Emerging compounds” is shorthand for Toxic Chemicals We Don’t Know Enough About But Will Likely Do Very Bad Things to Humans. Among them, PFAS are widespread in the state’s drinking water supplies. Also known as perfluorinated and polyfluroalkyl compounds, they are toxic, and have been linked to thyroid disorders, kidney and testicular cancers, immune system disruptions, reproductive issues and developmental problems in the fetus. Besides the Chemours facility near Fayetteville that has been the source of enforcement actions by state officials, there are other sources of PFAS — firefighting foam, for example — but the full scope of the problem is unknown. Another likely carcinogen, 1,4-Dioxane, is also found in drinking water, landfill leachate and wastewater sludge that is applied to farm fields. That sludge can seep into groundwater, contaminating private wells, as well as rivers and lakes that serve as public drinking water supplies. Knowing the source of these compounds can at least publicly identify them. Unfortunately, since the EPA hasn’t yet regulated these compounds in drinking water, the state’s authority to bring the hammer down is limited. (The City of Greensboro is a chronic offender and entered into a Special Order By Consent with DEQ; nonetheless, the city continues to discharge illegal amounts of the compound into the drinking water supply.) People who could be exposed to the compounds would benefit from the information, and could then decide whether to install filtration systems in their homes or pursue alternate water supplies — or sue the perpetrator. Image: Adobe Stock Item: Increase in monies for the Bernard Allen Drinking Water Fund Amount: A temporary increase to $700,000 each year, up from $400,000 annually Why it matters: This fund helps eligible households — based on income — secure an alternate drinking water supply if their private well becomes contaminated with human-made compounds. However, there is no income limitation for wells that are contaminated with PFAS. Chemours is responsible for paying for alternate water supplies for people living near its plant. But when the source is unknown, money from this fund pays for well testing as well as alternative water. (There are spending caps, given the finite amount of money.) However, there is a shortcoming in the law that established the fund: Households whose wells contain high levels of naturally occurring elements, such as arsenic and lithium, are not eligible, even though their health might be at risk. Item: Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Amount: $30 million Why it matters: Because it’s at the end of a 191-mile river, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority gets the dregs of upstream pollution — like a bar mat that collects all the excess beer and alcohol spilled over the course of a night. Since 2017, the CPFUA has grappled with trying to remove PFAS, including GenX, and 1,4-Dioxane from upstream dischargers, but because traditional treatment systems don’t filter those compounds, they can remain in the drinking water at high levels. CPFUA has spent money to improve its system with technology that removes about one-third of 1,4-dioxane from raw water. But the full cost to upgrade the water treatment system is upward of $46 million, plus another $3 million in annual operating costs. Unless the utility can successfully sue Chemours or another identified source, that expense is on the ratepayers. Ironically, though, by appropriating $30 million from state funds, taxpayers are still shouldering the financial cost, while lawmakers are phasing out corporate income taxes — like those on Chemours — by 2029. Photo: Creative Commons/jitze Item: Grants for water and sewer utilities that have been designated as distressed or are at risk of being distressed Amount: $456 million and $317 million, respectively Why it matters: We often take water and sewer service for granted — until one or both stops working. But more than a major inconvenience, substandard water and sewer can pose public health hazards: contaminated drinking water, sewer overflows into the streets and waterways, breaks in 70-year-old water mains that create sinkholes in the road. Some smaller cities and towns, especially those losing industry and population, no longer have enough customers to pay for infrastructure upgrades and maintenance. The towns get farther behind in fixing the systems, amass debt and can’t dig themselves out. The state moves in and declares them “distressed.” There are 22 public utilities currently listed as distressed based on water and sewer issues — and whose situation is worsening — according to state records. These funds, apportioned by the Water Infrastructure Authority, could help needy utilities repair their systems, provided of course, there are people to do the work. Of the 22 utilities in crisis, 10 also have “internal control” issues, which in short means their record-keeping and audits are a mess. In addition to general funding for at-risk utilities, who must apply to the Water Infrastructure Authority for money, 115 municipalities are receiving direct funds from the legislature. They don’t have to fill out forms or be scored in order to substantiate their need to the WIA. In other words, they’re cutting in line, thanks to friends in high places. Budget item: Coastal resilience Amount: Roughly $1.6 million Why it matters: The question is not if the coast will get battered next hurricane season, but how many times. Seaside and sound side communities are still recovering three years after Hurricane Florence, and a routine nor’easter can peel the pavement off Highway 12. Climate change is helping to strengthen storms while lifting sea levels, especially in northeastern North Carolina, where the ground is sinking at the same time — a double whammy. Coastal planning and management, as well as a person to do the administrative work, are key to these communities’ ability to adapt to a changing and unpredictable climate. But the money will go only so far unless developers stop building homes on the edge of the ocean — a situation that just begging for trouble. Worth tracking: The NC Policy Collaboratory an environmental and public health think tank housed at UNC-Chapel Hill, is now enshrined into law and funded at $1 million a year. Jeffrey Warren, former science and energy advisor to Senate leader Phil Berger, became the research director of the Collaboratory nearly five years ago. Although Warren’s tenure as the Berger policy whisperer produced some much criticized environmental bills around such topics as coal ash, fracking, and sea level rise, his time at the Collaboratory has resulted in some solid scientific research, particularly regarding PFAS. Photo: Adobe Stock One task for the Collaboratory is compiling a database of PFAS-containing firefighting foams ($100,000). The legislature devoted an entire section to these foams, known as AFFF. Once the budget becomes law, state and local fire departments, including those serving airports, must provide an inventory of all AFFF, including amounts, storage, disposal and “deployment” or use. Record-keeping must include the date, time and location of where AFFF was used, as well as how much and why the fire department used that type of material. This will allow state environmental officials to track where the AFFF might have entered waterways, but also gives public health officials a clearer picture of firefighters’ exposure to the chemical. However, the original language would have banned AFFF in training but was watered down at the last minute into this the AFFF study provision. Photo: Creative Commons/OSU Master Gardener Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Overall budget: $169.8 million in the first year, $162.9 million in the second Item: Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program Amount: $250,000 in one-time funds Why it matters: Pro tip: Don’t throw your leftover pesticides in the trash. The money in this appropriation would be used to help — for free — farmers and homeowners in the safe collection and lawful disposal of banned, outdated or unwanted pesticides. Hazardous material shouldn’t go to a municipal landfill. Instead, pesticides should be disposed of in special landfill that handles this type of waste. Or you could just learn to live with the dandelions. Ravenous and invasive, the hemlock woolly adelgid (Photo: University of Florida Entomology Department) Item: Hemlock restoration Amount: $300,000 each year Why it matters: The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an invasive, homely insect that is decimating vast acres of hemlock trees in the North Carolina mountains. It was also found in 2010 at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary. Hemlocks are known as the “redwood of the east,” according to the National Park Service. Some Eastern hemlocks can grow more than 150 feet tall on trunks measuring 6 feet in diameter. Some of these trees in the Great Smoky Mountains are over 500 years old. But when large stands of hemlocks die, as they are en masse in Western North Carolina, it ignites a chain reaction that damages, sometimes irreparably, habitats for fish, birds and other wildlife. These die-offs release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that drives climate change, into the atmosphere. Restoring hemlocks is key to rehabilitating parts of the mountain ecosystem as well as storing carbon in the trees. The Chestnut Knob fire south of Morganton in 2016 (Photo: NC Forest Service) Item: Wildfire suppression Amount: $4 million for an airplane tanker and a helicopter to help suppress wildfires, plus another $5 million to replace old fire suppressant equipment. An additional $1 million in grants go to forest owners for prescribed burning. Why it matters: Considering how wet the mountains were this year because of Tropical Storm Fred, it’s easy to forget about the possibility of wildfires. But so far this year in North Carolina, 2,801 fires have burned 8,422 acres, according to the NC Forest Service. North Carolina has already outpaced 2020 in the number of fires (2,302) and acreage burned (7,829). Prescribed burning is important to suppressing wildfires. Selectively burning understory — a longtime and effective method employed by Native American cultures — deprives potential wildfires of fuel. Questionable: $200,000 in one-time money for the Cleveland County Fair, which is in House Speaker Tim Moore’s district, and a half million dollars to pave the Duplin County Events Center parking lot, which is in Rep. Jimmy Dixon’s district. Worth tracking: Proceeds from timber sales on Department of Agriculture land are to be used for land restoration and stewardship. How much money did the department earn from the sale of 19 acres of timber that is now a State Fair parking lot? Policy Watch filed a public records request on Oct. 28 for information on those revenues. Stay tuned.
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The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.
By: Al Shaw and Lylla Younes, ProPublicaNovember 2, 2021 It’s not a secret that industrial facilities emit hazardous air pollution. A new ProPublica analysis shows for the first time just how much toxic air pollution they emit — and how much the chemicals they unleash could be elevating cancer risk in their communities. ProPublica’s analysis of five years of modeled EPA data identified more than 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country and found that an estimated 250,000 people living in them may be exposed to levels of excess cancer…
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Over 30 air pollution “hotspots” in North Carolina have elevated cancer rates, per ProPublica study
By: Lisa Sorg, NC Policy WatchNovember 4, 2021 The hundreds of people who live closest to SGL Carbon in Morganton are breathing air so polluted that they face a lifetime cancer risk 120 times greater than set by the EPA. Each year, SGL is allowed by state permit to emits nearly a ton of methylene chloride and 174 pounds of benzene, both known carcinogens The area near the plant is one of thousands of “hotspots” identified by ProPublica, which yesterday unveiled a massive environmental story that mapped the spread of cancer-causing chemicals from sources of…
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Environmental lawsuit challenges NC biogas production from hog waste
By: Arturo Pineda, Carolina Public PressOctober 22, 2021 A complaint about pollutants from hog farms filed last month with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleges that the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s issuing of biogas permits to four hog farms will have a disproportionate impact on communities of color in the surrounding area. North Carolina environmental and civil rights advocacy groups argue that if the biogas operations are allowed to operate, pollutants from the operations will affect the communities of color surrounding the hog farms. Biogas production is…
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Will property owners who lost land to scuttled Atlantic Coast Pipeline get it back?
By: Lisa Sorg, NC Policy WatchOctober 28, 2021 Advocates cry foul as future of thousands of easements in North Carolina and Virginia remains uncertain Dominion Energy laid claim to 3,100 tracts of private land along the Atlantic Coast Pipeline route, including hundreds in North Carolina, but the company is not immediately returning that acreage to property owners, even though the project has been cancelled. Now property rights and environmental advocates, as well as landowners themselves, are asking federal officials to formally intervene. Under the name…
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EPA to regulate certain types of ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water in 2023
By: Rachel Frazin, The HillOctober 18, 2021 The EPA on Monday released its strategy for addressing a type of cancer-linked chemicals called PFAS, including its plans to finish a rule to regulate certain types of PFAS in drinking water in 2023. PFAS stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and these substances are a group of man-made chemicals that have been linked to health problems such as kidney and testicular cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure rates can be difficult to assess, but one…
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Pollution from N.C.’s Commercial Poultry Farms Disproportionately Harms Communities of Color
By: Aman Azhar, Inside Climate NewsOctober 13, 2021 The legislation aimed at regulating North Carolina’s huge and largely unregulated poultry industry seemed modest in scope, requiring commercial chicken farms to submit waste management plans to environmental regulators so the public would know where millions of tons of chicken “litter” ends up. But as the legislative session in Raleigh came to a close in July, the bill had moved not an inch—and no one was surprised. “We’re unlikely to see any poultry related legislation passed in the short run,”…
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