Environment

The Environmental Protection Agency is pledging to unleash its full regulatory arsenal on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) polluters.  In a news conference in Raleigh Tuesday, former N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan, appointed by President Joe Biden in March to head the EPA, returned to his home state to share the agency’s […]

BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Developers who proposed a new subdivision last month — filled with dwellings of many types west of Bolivia in an area prone to flooding — had their proposal shot down by the Brunswick County Planning Board. It will be considered again next week with revised plans. The board voted 6-1 to deny Middle […]

NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Nearly three decades have passed since New Hanover County purchased a parcel near Monkey Junction with intentions of building a new park on the land. Those plans are now moving along. The 42.5-acre project off Carolina Beach Road was formerly called “Battle Park,” and it faced a rocky path after the […]

The Department of Environmental Quality has issued a notice of violation to Chemours for exceeding its 12-month limit of releasing GenX, the chemical that kicked off the region’s water contamination crisis. DEQ allows Chemours to dump 23.07 pounds per year of GenX into the atmosphere. This ceiling was a result of a negotiated 99% reduction […]

WILMINGTON –– A lawsuit filed in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers highlights the deadly environmental cost of dredging the Wilmington harbor: bludgeoned sea turtles.  Each year, the corps’ south Atlantic division kills dozens of endangered sea turtles over the course of its federally mandated duties of dredging navigation channels along the coast.  […]

WILMINGTON –– A company that specializes in the use of the neurotoxin methyl bromide is seeking to add a new emission unit to fumigate fruit and produce at the Port of Wilmington.  Ecolab is aiming to modify its existing N.C. Division of Air Quality (DAQ) permit to meet recently tightened state regulations of the ozone-depleting […]

BRUNSWICK COUNTY — There’s a campaign afoot in Brunswick County and its coastal townships to thwart the installation of offshore wind turbines within 24 nautical miles of the shoreline.  The opposition movement began earlier this summer in Bald Head Island. The village council approved a resolution in May that makes it clear any efforts to […]

NEW HANOVER COUNTY –– New Hanover County may soon bulk up its fines for repeat litterers and grant its environmental management director the ability to issue civil fines for illegal dumping.  The ability to fine those who illegally dump trash currently rests solely with law enforcement. County code authorizes the sheriff’s office to issue nuisance […]

WILMINGTON — The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality served a “stop work order” to the developer of a planned houseboat community in a downtown Wilmington marina.  In a July 26 letter, an official in the Division of Coastal Management concluded developer Chuck Schoninger did not disclose plans to move three floating homes into Port City […]

SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — For decades Wrightsville and Carolina beaches have operated under a beach renourishment ritual that local officials say is environmentally sound and cost effective.  Now the Biden administration has moved to upend this status quo with a new interpretation of existing law, which, despite its intention of protecting coastal resources, would do more harm […]