New Law Requires State to Recycle Oyster Shells

The N.C. General Assembly passed a law that prohibits state agencies from using oyster shells for landscaping or highway beautification projects. Instead, agencies are required to donate any oyster shells to the state Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) to be used in oyster rehabilitation projects.

            The bill was introduced in response to an ill-conceived highway-beautification project that used 2,000 bushels of oyster shells as mulch along a highly visible section of U.S. 74-76 near the drawbridge to Wrightsville Beach in New Hanover County.  The DMF staff removed the oyster shells with help from NCCF and the N.C. Department of Transportation. The federation and DMF are using some of the shells to build an oyster reef in Myrtle Grove Sound behind Masonboro Island.

Campaign Underway To Stop Camden Landfill

A number of non-profit, public advocacy organizations, government agencies and citizens have joined together in mounting a campaign to stop the Black Bear Landfill project in Camden County. 

            “This is a grassroots program uniting many different organizations working with concerned citizens who will be effected by this project,” said Bill Bland of the Camden Citizens Action League. “We don’t want our fragile eco-system threatened by a landfill that will have a seven-mile odor zone, will stand 280 feet high and will stretch nearly 2.5 miles long.”

            Under its contract with Camden County, Waste Industries Inc. could haul trash out-of-state trash to the proposed giant landfill. There will be more than 500 trash trucks dumping 20-ton loads each day at the 490-acre site. The site will have a total capacity of 92 million tons of trash over its 27-year projected lifespan.

            “There are serious questions that remain about the adverse environmental and economic impact, now and in the future, on the entire region,” said Dalton S. Edge, the mayor of Chesapeake. “We believe it’s going to be bad not only for the people in Camden County, but for all of northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia.”

            The Citizens Against the Camden Landfill includes the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Camden Citizens Action League, Citizen Alliance to Prevent Imported Trash, the City of Chesapeake, Conservation Council of North Carolina and the N.C. Coastal Federation.

DWQ Reduces Fees for LID Express Permit Review

The state Division of Water Quality (DWQ) has cut its express permit review fees in half for the coastal stormwater permits as an incentive to developers that employ low-impact development (LID) techniques. Review periods for permits in the express program are 60 to 90 percent shorter than permits in the corresponding regular permitting programs.

            LID techniques assimilate rainwater where it falls, through a system of small, multiple, discrete stormwater treatment devices distributed throughout the landscape.  “LID’s main objective is to treat stormwater at the source, as opposed to the conventional pipe-and-pond,” according to Larry Coffman, a consultant specializing in LID education and training.