THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503110264
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
The state's top environmental official has been traveling in eastern North Carolina to promote Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s spending package for coastal and water-quality programs.
The coastal plan includes about $5.7 million in new spending related to coastal and water-quality issues and about $4.9 million already in Hunt's capital budget for construction projects related to the coast.
The coastal budget requests are part of Hunt's $10.1 billion package of general fund spending items for 1995-96 and of another $10.1 billion general fund budget requests for 1995-97, which include $434 million in tax cuts over the next two years.
Hunt is scheduled to discuss his coastal agenda March 31 at a joint meeting in eastern North Carolina of the state Marine Fisheries Commission, the Coastal Resources Commission and the Environmental Management Commission.
`` Governor Hunt has made it clear that he is focusing on very few items during the legislative session,'' said Jonathan Howes, secretary of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. He met with reporters Thursday in Greenville. ``It's obvious from this budget proposal that the governor is very concerned about the coastal environment.
``It clearly reflects, I think, the governor's priority of maintaining an active coastal program even in an era when we're not advancing new programs, and we don't want to seek new regulatory activities,'' he said.
The big winners in Hunt's budget package are programs aimed at preventing nonpoint source pollution - runoff from farms, towns and timber operations - and aimed at boosting enforcement of fisheries rules.
Nonpoint pollution programs are slated to receive more than $1.7 million through programs of the Division of Soil and Water, the Division of Forest Resources and the Division of Environmental Management. The Division of Marine Fisheries will receive more than $2.1 million for new fisheries law enforcement officers, equipment and a new marine patrol boat.
``We've done all we can do at the end of the discharge pipe,'' Howes said. ``If we can begin to make a dent in the nonpoint source pollution, then we will have made a major step forward.''
Under Hunt's budget proposal, the department is slated to lose 99 staff members, including the director of the department's regional office in Washington, but it is scheduled to gain 31 staff members through new programs.
Howes' stop in Greenville was part of a two-day tour of the state's central coastal region to tout the package of spending programs for the coast.
But even as Howes promoted the new spending proposals, the department's budget was coming under close scrutiny by state lawmakers who have been asked to identify about $15 million in cuts in existing natural and economic resource programs before moving on to new program and construction requests.
The Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural and Economic Resources has already found several items in the Division of Marine Fisheries budget - including the agency's $1 million fisheries grant program and a crab research laboratory - for further discussion and possible cuts.
The subcommittee is scheduled to begin Tuesday its review of the Division of Coastal Management's budget for possible cuts in existing programs.
One of the chief disappointments in Hunt's budget among coastal legislative leaders, environmental groups and agency staff members is the absence of money to buy critical coastal natural areas and expand the state's coastal reserve properties to include a site in the Albemarle-Pamlico region. MEMO: HUNT'S PACKAGE
Some of the spending requests for new programs and increases in
existing programs and construction projects in Gov. James B. Hunt Jr's
coastal package now before the state legislature:
$266,334 for five new Division of Soil and Water staff members to
work with farmers to help them comply with animal waste management
regulations and $729,500 to pay for contract labor to help farmers
comply with minimum design standards for animal waste disposal effective
in 1997;
$287,292 for five new Division of Forest Resources staff positions to
help foresters reduce runoff from their operations;
$459,292 for eight new Division of Environmental Management positions
to serve as the agency's core nonpoint-source pollution program;
$365,141 for seven Division of Coastal Management staff members and
$500,000 for grants to local governments to help with local land-use
planning;
$1,338,892 to support seven new Division of Marine Fisheries patrol
officers and $575,000 for boats, trailers and other equipment;
$2.1 million to the Division of Marine Fisheries for a new marine
patrol boat, a new shellfish research center in the central coast and
the extension of an aircraft hangar for more storage space and
training;
$1.3 million to the Division of Environmental Management for computer
programs and other technology for its water quality program.
$500,000 to the Partnership for the Sounds for a building in Tyrrell
County for environmental education;
$1.3 million to help pay for expansion at the state's three aquariums
in Dare, Carteret and New Hanover counties;
More than $2 million to the Division of Water Resources for various
projects including maintenance of the Wilmington and Morehead City
ports.
Source: Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. by CNB