THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506050031
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Business and industry representatives and lobbyists for state environmental groups will continue to try to reach a compromise this week on a Senate bill designed to reduce the state's role in wetlands protection.
The groups are to sit down this afternoon at the General Assembly to try to reach a compromise on how closely the state should review development projects that would affect wetlands lying primarily in the headwaters of streams, legislative sources said.
Today's meeting continues negotiations begun last week after the bill got its first review in a Senate committee that studies agriculture and environment issues.
Despite the fact that a majority of senators had agreed to back the legislation, negotiations over many provisions of the bill began at the behest of Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, who told fellow senators he was concerned that the bill would increase the amount of wetlands lost in the state.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. David W. Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat, is intended to clarify the authority of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources under the federal Clean Water Act to regulate development that takes place in the state's wetlands. It also establishes a voluntary wetlands-mitigation bank and a fund of monetary contributions and donations of interest in real estate to be used for the acquisition, restoration or creation of wetlands.
As originally proposed, the bill would have required the department to approve automatically most projects that would affect less than three acres of wetlands, if the applicant for a permit would agree to mitigate any wetlands losses.
These changes were proposed over the objections of the environmental community and department representatives.
``Some people were trying to move this forward without sitting down and talking to the environmental community and the department,'' said Basnight spokesman Bret Kinsella.
After initial negotiations last week, the bill was changed to include stricter mitigation requirements for development that would alter wetlands closest to the state's rivers and streams.
Under the latest version, applicants seeking a permit for projects in wetlands within 150 feet of a waterway would be required to restore five acres of wetlands or pay into the mitigation bank to restore five acres for every acre of wetlands affected. Projects from 150 to 1,000 feet of a waterway would require a three-to-one mitigation ration and all other projects would require a one-to-one ratio.
The bill was also changed to provide more money to establish a state wetlands mitigation program.
In addition to the original $1 million one-time appropriation from the state Highway Fund, the bill establishes a $2 million annual appropriations for the wetlands mitigation bank and $500,000 to the department to oversee the program.
Coastal marshes and other saltwater wetlands also protected as so-called ``areas of environmental concern'' under the Coastal Area Management Act would not be affected by the bill.
Environmental lobbyist Bill Holman said Friday the state appears to be changing its priorities for wetlands protection from avoiding and minimizing wetlands losses to minimizing and mitigating for those losses.
Kinsella said the latest version of the bill, which is under review by the Senate Appropriations Committee, is ``a much better bill for the environment'' and negotiations will continue as the bill continues through committee review. by CNB