NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH — An Onslow County beach town’s board of aldermen voted on new environmental protections rules Wednesday, mandating $10,000 fines for any damage caused to wetlands due to construction projects.
READ MORE: ‘Not paying attention to history’: Environmentalists concerned over loosened wetlands rules
“We’re trying to be proactive — not to be punitive — but we have pretty stiff fines,” Mayor Pro Tem Mike Benson said at the meeting.
The board discussed new wetlands protections last month but deferred the issue due to uncertainty over recent changes to the federal and state definition of wetlands.
In May, the Supreme Court decision Sackett vs. EPA removed federal authority of isolated wetlands: wetlands that do not have a “continuous surface connection” with other bodies of water.
NC Senate Bill 582, which passed in June after the General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, similarly removed state jurisdiction of isolated wetlands that lost federal protection under the Supreme Court ruling. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality estimates around 2.5 million acres lost protection in North Carolina after the rulings.
North Topsail’s new ordinance defines wetlands in accordance with state and federal law, which would not include isolated wetlands. The ordinance requires any wetlands damaged during construction to be restored to their original state using similar materials and stabilizing vegetation within seven days of notice.
The property owner will also be responsible for the maintenance of sedimentation and control measures to preserve wetlands.
All aldermen voted in favor of the ordinance except Benson. He supported the spirit of the ordinance but wanted changes to some aspects of the law, such as the timescale for required restoration.
The board unanimously passed a separate motion to add a civil citation for $10,000 for the first offense of wetland damage and subsequent offenses. A fine for wetland disturbance was not defined in the town’s past fee schedules. In the past, town staff penalized wetland destruction with land disturbance fees of $50 and double permit fees of $200.
North Topsail planning director Deborah Hill confirmed with Port City Daily the ordinance applies to the definition used by the federal government and the NCDEQ. Its Division of Water Quality issued a Sept. 20 memo for permittees, confirming the amended definition of wetlands, as well as related rules on soil remediation and monitoring requirements.
“Historically, it has been the town’s practice to verify with NCDEQ and USACE the demarcation of wetlands and we intend to continue this practice going forward,” town manager Alice Derian told Port City Daily.
Despite the limited definition, the new ordinance represents stronger wetland regulation than several other local municipalities. Carolina Beach planning director Jeremy Hardison and Wrightsville Beach town manager Timothy Owens told Port City Daily their towns do not have local regulations for wetland disturbance.
Benson argued the mandated seven–day timescale for restoration of damaged wetlands was excessively harsh, citing it as a major reason for his objection.
The new law includes a separate violation for each day of failure to repair damage to wetlands and vegetation after notice. It does not specify what the violation would entail.
“I was not happy at all that the wetlands have to be restored in seven days — that’s just not biologically possible — so we need to come up with a reasonable timeline for damaged wetland restoration,” Benson said.
Alderman Richard Grant countered the rule would serve as a deterrent.
“You have to have the incentive if they disturb a dune or wetland to correct it as soon as possible and I don’t think seven days is unreasonable to have a contractor do that,” Grant said.
Benson asserted it is unrealistic for developers or property owners to buy and plant one of the acceptable marsh grasses required for restoration within a week. He noted the town has had trouble obtaining plants from vendors in the past.
Grant argued difficulty obtaining restoration materials should not justify extended periods of wetland disturbance. He said the town’s inspectors would be able to make the judgment call if the property owner made a good-faith effort to rehabilitate any damage.
“I’m playing devil’s advocate here: If I build a $3 million house and I tear up the wetlands to put a pool in and all the other stuff, and all I get is one $10,000 fine – and nothing to follow up on that — that’s a cheap price for me to go ahead and put my pool up and ignore everything else,” Grant said.
Town attorney Brian Edes called for the meeting’s minutes to clarify the difference between efforts to restore damaged wetlands within seven days versus the timescale of the ecological process necessary for restoration.
Benson also argued the council should rearrange the ordinance’s language to prioritize the property owner responsibility to guarantee protection of wetlands. The ordinance asserts property owner responsibility in section B of its wetland protection section, which Benson wanted changed to section A to increase emphasis.
“We don’t want the property-owner two or three months down the line from now going, ‘Well I didn’t know there was a $10,000 fine for this, because my contractor disturbed the wetlands’,” he said.
Mayor Joann McDermon said that town staff would be able to communicate with property-owners about their responsibility, and that further emphasis on their duty was unnecessary. Alderman Tom Leonard noted the ordinance allowed for some interpretive flexibility, and that town staff would be able to adopt the new rules on a case-by-case basis.
“The spirit of the ordinance is to not mess up the wetlands and if you do to fix it, OK, all the other stuff — how long it gets done — I think it’s fine the way it is,” Leonard said.
The ordinance went into immediate effect.
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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