PRESS RELEASE

Expanding energy opportunities and cleaning up coal ash are among top 2014 news items for state agency

RALEIGH – To help journalists with year-in-review stories, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources has put together its list of the agency’s biggest news items and accomplishments for 2014.

Expanding energy opportunities

The N.C. Mining and Energy Commission and DENR completed the draft rules for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the state. The commission approved the draft rules in November, and the Rules Review Commission approved most of them this week. The rules address hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, well construction, closure, setbacks, disposal of wastewater, and other requirements to protect public health and the environment. The draft rules came about during a two-year period that included 146 public meetings, four public hearings and a comment period that generated more than 217,000 comments.

The draft rules will be presented to the state legislature during the 2015 long session. Permits for oil and gas exploration and production can only be issued after rules are approved by the state legislature.

Also, DENR Secretary John Skvarla in January appointed Donald van der Vaart, a longtime DENR supervisor, as the state’s first energy policy advisor. Van der Vaart focuses on increasing domestic energy exploration, development and production in North Carolina as well as promoting related economic growth and job creation. Van der Vaart’s appointment is in keeping with Governor Pat McCrory’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy.

The governor in June signed the Energy Modernization Act, clearing the way for energy exploration, high-tech jobs and new investment in North Carolina’s energy sector. The act includes provisions that establish the timeframe for developing a regulatory program for hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling and the N.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

Addressing coal ash contamination

The cleanup and assessment of the Dan River spill 

An estimated 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled into the Dan River in Eden after a stormwater pipe beneath an ash pond at Duke Energy’s Dan River Steam Station ruptured Feb. 2.

DENR staff and its federal and state partners have spent much of the year overseeing the cleanup of coal ash from the river, assessing the spill’s impacts and working to address coal ash storage at the Dan River site and 31 other facilities statewide.

To date, all downstream municipalities with intakes on the Dan River have reported their water is safe for drinking using normal treatment processes. No fish kills have been reported. State health officials removed a recreational water advisory after tests showed that contaminants associated with the spill are at levels that should not pose a health risk during recreational use of the river. Also, aquatic insect communities in an area downstream from the coal ash spill appear to be thriving, according to test results DENR released in November. The diversity and population estimates of these aquatic insects provide an excellent indicator of the overall health of a body of water.

Restoring natural resources

In June, DENR and other natural resource trustees entered into a cooperative Natural Resource Damage Assessment and

Restoration process with Duke Energy, the party responsible for the spill. The trustees are assessing the impacts of the coal ash pond release on natural resources, focusing on injuries to habitat, surface water and sediment, aquatic species, migratory birds, and human uses of those resources. The assessment aims to restore natural resources and the services they provide. To meet this goal, the trustees recover funds on restoration projects. DENR and the other trustees are preparing a summary of responses with feedback and restoration proposals received from the public on a restoration scoping document the trustees completed in October.

Investigating all coal ash facilities

In the wake of the spill, DENR regulators conducted detailed inspections of all Duke Energy’s coal ash facilities in North Carolina. DENR requested and received from Duke Energy engineering and emergency action plans and maps for the facilities and videos of the insides of all pipes at the impoundments. DENR is also collecting information about all permitted and unpermitted discharge points at the company’s coal ash impoundments. The agency’s comprehensive review will inform future decision-making regarding the coal ash impoundments, including plans to close the facilities.

Enforcement actions

DENR announced in March a partnership with the EPA in which both agencies are working together on an enforcement action for environmental violations associated with the Dan River spill and to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act at all Duke Energy’s coal-fired facilities.

DENR also continues to pursue lawsuits the agency filed against Duke Energy in 2013 before the spill. The lawsuits were filed based on Clean Water Act violations at all the utility’s plants with coal ash storage facilities.

Putting into action the Coal Ash Management Act of 2014

The spill and its aftermath led to the Coal Ash Management Act of 2014, which became law in September. The law sets the state on a path to cleaning up the state’s coal ash ponds by strengthening environmental and health regulations. It puts Duke Energy on a timetable to close all its coal ash ponds, closes loopholes in state law to strengthen the state’s ability to regulate the ponds, eliminates special exemptions for utilities and increases regulatory authority to ensure dam safety and protect water quality.

As part of its assessment of the state’s coal ash facilities, DENR staff members are working to come up with a risk-based schedule to prioritize the closure of all 32 ash ponds. The site-specific closure plans, the preferred method of state regulators and the EPA, will use data from comprehensive environmental assessments of the 14 coal-fired facilities in North Carolina, including the testing of drinking water wells near ash ponds. DENR sent letters this week inviting residents with water supply wells near Duke Energy’s coal-fired electricity generating facilities to have their wells tested. The risk-based schedule will require approval from the Coal Ash Management Commission, the board created by the new law.

Actions started in the fall to reuse coal ash now stored at Duke Energy plants. DENR staff members are reviewing permit applications received in November to reuse some of the coal ash stored at Duke Energy’s Riverbend (Charlotte area) and Sutton (Wilmington) facilities as structural fill in open-pit clay mines in Lee and Chatham counties. The applications request that water be removed from the clay mines and that the mines be engineered with berms, channels, haul roads, leachate collection systems and lined containment areas to handle coal ash.

The utility has also announced plans to reuse some coal ash at its Asheville Power Plant at an existing lined structural fill project at the Asheville Regional Airport and to reuse some of the coal ash from the Dan River facility at an existing lined landfill in Jetersville, Va.

Protecting air

Ozone levels in North Carolina were the lowest on record in 2014. There were no exceedances of the federal ozone standard for the first time since air monitoring began in the early 1970s, due to lower air emissions and favorable weather conditions. The number of high ozone days has averaged 14 days a year during the past five years and 28 days a year during the past decade.

All of North Carolina meets the new national air quality standard for fine particle pollution, according to the EPA. The EPA

notified the governor in August that it intends to officially designate the entire state as attaining or meeting the new federal

standard for fine particles that it adopted in 2012.

Motorists and businesses in the Triangle and Triad saw significant savings at the gas pumps in 2014, due to an EPA rule change prompted by data from DENR. EPA rules had required gasoline in North Carolina’s Triangle and Triad regions to be formulated to emit lower amounts of volatile organic compounds during the summer months to reduce ground level ozone. Costs associated with the seasonal formula change were passed on to retailers, resulting in higher gas prices during the summer months. However, the EPA relaxed its rule in May after staff with the Division of Air Quality provided the EPA with modeling and analysis of air quality data to convince the federal agency that the summertime gasoline requirement was having an insignificant impact on air quality in the Triangle and Triad. The change allows service stations in these areas to sell the same kind of gasoline as in other parts of the state, rather than switching to more expensive, low-volatility fuel during the summer months, with no discernible effects on air quality. State officials estimate the relaxation of the rule resulted in cost savings of about seven cents per gallon of gas for motorists and businesses, for a total savings of more than $18 million from June 1 to Sept. 15.

Protecting water

In June, the state Division of Water Resources and EPA agreed on a plan to address the problem of too many nutrients in the state’s rivers, lakes and estuaries. The plan comes after a decade of work by the Division of Water Resources and interested stakeholders. Under the approved plan, the state will develop numeric nutrient water quality standards for High Rock Lake by 2018, for the Albemarle Sound by 2020 and for the central portion of the Cape Fear River basin by 2021. Work done in these three water bodies will help to determine appropriate standards for similar types of water bodies across the state. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus (nutrients) are among the most prevalent cause of water quality impairment in the United States.

In November, proposed revisions to state surface water quality standards, including the numbers the state uses to evaluate metals, were approved by the N.C. Environmental Management Commission in response to the federally-required Triennial Review of Surface Water Quality Standards. The Clean Water Act requires states to periodically evaluate surface water standards in light of recent research and information about water pollutants’ effects on aquatic life and human health. The new standards are in line with nationally recommended water quality guidance and change how the state measures the environmental impacts of certain metals.

State officials this year completed the first management plan that integrates water quality and water quantity supply planning components into one comprehensive river basin plan. The management plan for the Tar-Pamlico River Basin in eastern North Carolina provides people with better, faster and cheaper data as well as answers to water resources questions.

Groundwater levels in parts of eastern North Carolina are improving dramatically, apparently due to the efforts of local water and sewer authorities, adherence to a state law and regular monitoring by state water resources officials. Groundwater levels in the15-county central coastal plain capacity use area had been declining for years because many public water systems have depended upon deep aquifers that were losing water faster than they could be replenished. But a 2002 state law required public water systems in the region to reduce their reliance upon the aquifers because overuse of the diminishing water source was damaging the aquifers’ capability to provide water. Instead of relying solely upon water supplies from the aquifer, water users in the 15-county area now using water from the Neuse, Tar and Roanoke rivers along with shallower aquifers to replace the reduction in use of the endangered aquifers.

Protecting the coast, estuaries and fisheries

The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission and the Division of Coastal Management moved forward with rules to streamline regulatory requirements for certain types of coastal development. These rule amendments include amending adjacent property owner notification requirements to streamline exemptions for single-family residences in the Estuarine Shoreline Area of Environmental Concern, and amending rules to allow perpendicular surface access ways to coastal shorelines (i.e., walkways from private residences to estuarine waters).

The Division of Coastal Management certified four new Clean Marinas and recertified 12 Clean Marinas in coastal North Carolina in the agency’s efforts to protect coastal water quality by assisting marinas and boatyards in the use of best management and operation practices.

The coastal agency also partnered with East Carolina University on a two-year cooperative agreement funded with $200,000 from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to evaluate sand resources for coastal resilience and restoration planning.

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries signed an agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service to implement a statewide incidental take permit for Atlantic sturgeon in the estuarine large-mesh and small-mesh anchored gill net fisheries. The permit, valid until July 2024, authorizes the limited take of Atlantic sturgeon in this fishery under a conservation plan designed to monitor, minimize and mitigate incidental interactions. Atlantic sturgeon is listed federally as “endangered.”

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries implemented a fee increase for several commercial fishing licenses. The fee increases were approved by the General Assembly to support the division’s Observer Program. The observer program collects at-sea information about commercial and recreational catches by observing fishing, either onboard fishing vessels or from a division vessel operated in the vicinity of fishing activity. The fee increase will allow continued access to important fisheries in North Carolina.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission announced 14 Coastal Recreational Fishing License grants awards totaling $1.78 million for the 2014 cycle. The grants pay for projects that improve coastal fishing access and fisheries and habitat research.

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries partnered with the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, to continue water quality testing at 38 coastal swimming sites that had been on the chopping block due to cuts in federal funding. APNEP provided a $20,000 grant to the division to continue monitoring sites in northeastern North Carolina.

Cleaning up contamination and redeveloping property

The state experienced a record-breaking year in its efforts to redevelop properties that had been contaminated. The state’s Brownfields program, part of the Division of Waste Management, produced its highest annual total of brownfields agreements (47) than any year since the program started in 1997. A brownfields site is an abandoned, idled or underused property where the threat of environmental contamination has hindered its redevelopment. Under the law, the Division of Waste Management works with prospective developers who did not cause the contamination to reuse these sites.

The Division of Waste Management developed a guidance document to help environmental professionals and staff members investigate and evaluate vapor intrusion at contaminated sites. The guidance document presents basic vapor intrusion investigation, sampling, evaluation and mitigation approaches.

Reducing waste and recycling

North Carolina recorded the lowest per-capita rate for solid waste disposal in 2013 since measurement began in 1991, continuing a steady downward trend in disposal per person that started in 2006. Public recycling programs across the state are contributing to this trend by providing services that divert materials from disposal and return them to the state’s recycling economy. DENR collects data on disposal and public recycling programs each year tracking progress being made in recycling. The nature of materials collected and managed by public recycling programs continues to change as do the types of recycling services provided. For example, more citizens than ever have access to curbside recycling with 318 participating programs and the number of households served is about 1.89 million.

Conserving significant lands

The Clean Water Management Trust Fund awarded $17.4 million in grants to help conserve environmentally important land and protect waterways serving millions of North Carolinians. This year’s projects included $123,000 to protect land at the Bentonville Battlefield in Johnston County, more than $1.4 million in projects preventing encroachment for military training exercises at Fort Bragg, and more than $4 million to conserve land in state parks, gamelands and state forests.

The N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund announced the award of $4.1 million grants to 17 local governments for parks and recreation projects. The matching grants will help fund land acquisition, development and renovation of public projects.

Conserving energy in state government and business

The state’s Utility Savings Initiative, part of the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service, assisted state agencies and universities to reduce their facilities’ energy usage, making great strides toward a 30 percent reduction goal

established for 2015. For 2014, these state facilities reported a 29 percent decrease in energy use per square foot, using 2003 as the year for comparison. These efficiency improvements resulted in $154 million of avoided utility costs in 2014. These state facilities also emitted 474,708 less tons of carbon dioxide air emissions as a result of their energy use reductions.

One important strategy used by the state to achieve energy savings is through energy saving performance contracts, a program overseen by the Utility Savings Initiative. This year, the state invested $21 million in performance contracts, financed through private banks, that upgraded facilities to better manage energy use.

DENR’s NC GreenTravel program, which recognizes the efforts of tourism-based businesses to reduce environmental impacts, now has more than 100 individually recognized facilities. The companies, including hotels, restaurants and parks, have been leaders in the reduction of energy, water and waste. DENR has recognized 115 NC GreenTravel businesses.

Regulatory reform

Governor McCrory in September signed the Regulatory Reform Act of 2014, which eliminates, simplifies or clarifies outdated laws. For instance, one provision clarifies the existing rule adoption process and another allows the governor to waive requirements for the repair or replacement of coastal bridges after a state of emergency has been declared.

Organizational improvements at DENR

An organizational change placed the state’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership under one manager in a move that will save money and enable better coordination between the two programs. The organizational change was supported by the EPA and members of the trust fund board and APNEP.

Improving natural resources

New educational programs and exhibits

The state’s three coastal aquariums added big exhibits in 2014. The Butterfly Bungalow exhibit opened in April at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The exhibit featured hundreds of free-flying exotic butterflies from across the globe. The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores’ extended the visitation months of its Dinosaur Adventure exhibit, and the Aquarium at Roanoke Island added a new dinosaur exhibit in May. The Pine Knoll Shores aquarium coordinated the high-profile sea turtle loan program, as yearlings were released and hatchlings were taken back to nine out-of-state facilities. In June, officials opened the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Islands Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation Center.

In March, the North Carolina Zoo opened KidZone, an outdoor playground for children that includes a vegetable garden and treetop trails. The mission of KidZone is to connect kids with nature and encourage them to get outside and play.

In October, the North Carolina Zoo reopened its polar bear habitat with an expanded exhibit. Governor McCrory was a keynote speaker at the reopening ceremony. The zoo’s design and horticulture departments helped save more than $1 million dollars on the construction project by completing a lot of the work on site.

The North Carolina Zoo saw the births of four lion cubs, three baboons, a chimpanzee and a baby otter were born at the zoo. It was the first lion birth in eight years at the zoo and the first otter birth in the zoo’s 40-year history. The zoo also acquired three cougar kittens.

Staff members with the state Division of Parks and Recreation are completing a $3.3 million visitor center at Lake Norman State Park with an exhibit hall, education space and offices. This is the state parks system’s 23^rd visitor center opened since 1994. The park near Charlotte has annual visitation of more than 300,000.

State parks officials also incorporated a former 4-H camp near Danbury into the operations of Hanging Rock State Park. The 716-acre property transferred from N.C. State University includes a lodge, campground, mountain bike trails, equestrian facilities and cabins. It was developed in the 1890s as a private resort.

State parks officials launched a multi-year program to relocate whitetail deer from Morrow Mountain State Park to the Cherokee Nation’s reservation to rebuild its traditional deer herd. In its first year, 39 animals were relocated. Partners include

the Cherokee Nation, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and

Consumer Affairs.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh hosted an international science technology conference in October. The conference pumped an estimated $2.28 million into the Raleigh economy. The Association of Science-Technology

Centers’ annual meeting in October drew more than 1,700 delegates from 42 countries to Raleigh.

The Museum of Natural Sciences also introduced NC Nat Sci, an Apple iOS device-based app designed to help visitors with disabilities, particularly visual disabilities, navigate the museum. This is the first app of its kind for museums.

Attendance records

For the third straight year, attendance at North Carolina’s state parks and state recreation areas hovered at a record level with 14.2 million visits in 2013, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. Among 40 state parks and state recreation areas, 19 reported increases in attendance in 2013. Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County reported the highest attendance at 1.19 million visits, followed closely by Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County with 1.18 million visits.

Honors, awards and milestones

The Institute of Museum and Library Services named the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as a recipient of the 2014 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The National Medal, the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries for service to the community, was presented to Museum Director Emlyn Koster by First Lady Michelle Obama at a special ceremony at the White House on May 8.

The N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher was named one of the top 25 U.S. Aquariums by Trip Advisor.

The North Carolina Zoo celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2014. The zoo’s 40^th anniversary was themed 40 Wild Years.

North Carolina received a national clean air award in April for an innovative program aimed at improving air quality at the state’s public schools during the past 18 years. The EPA presented one of its Clean Air Excellence Awards for the Clean School Bus NC program, a joint effort between DENR, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, and local school systems.

Three DENR employees earned Governor’s Awards for Excellence in November for efficiency and innovation. Sheila Holman, director for the Division of Air Quality, and Sushma Masemore, a section chief with the Division of Air Quality, and Tony Pendola, an environmental engineer with the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service, were honored for work they conducted that convinced the EPA to change the requirements for the type of gasoline used in the summer in the Triangle and Triad. Their work involved research on air quality data that revealed that the EPA’s requirements for low-volatility fuel were having an insignificant impact on air quality in either region. The data led to a change that allows service stations in those areas to sell the same kind of gasoline as in other parts of the state. Many factors impact the cost of gasoline, but it is likely that the work of the DENR employees will result in significant savings at the pump for consumers and retailers.

DENR staff earned national honors for two customer service initiatives in 2014, only the second agency in the nation to earn this recognition twice in same year. The department’s Integrating Environmental Customer Service initiative and its Division of Air Quality Assistance Project on Facility Pollution Reduction were honored in September with State Program Innovation Awards given by the Environmental Council of the States.

Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, part of the North Carolina Aquariums, received a top 2 percent award from “The Knot” magazine as a top 2 percent wedding venue location.

In April, the North Carolina Zoo became the first state agency to be certified as an “Environmental Steward” by DENR. The stewardship award recognizes the zoo’s long-standing sustainability efforts, including energy and water conservation as well as numerous recycling programs. The zoo staff maintains a two-acre site where 80 percent of its animal waste and 20 percent of its vegetative waste is composted. Those efforts have enabled the park to annually save $150,000 in solid waste disposal fees and $25,000 in soil purchases.