Environmental Defense Calls For Statewide Buffer Rule

(5 May 2003 — Raleigh)  Environmental Defense today released a report that calls on North Carolina regulatory agencies to develop a statewide buffer rule to protect the environment, economy and public health.  “Riparian Buffers: Common Sense Protection for North Carolina’s Water” recommends protection for a minimum 50-foot buffer of trees and grass adjacent to all year-round and intermittent streams in each of the state’s 17 river basins.  The report also calls for other complementary measures, including incentive programs for private landowners and setting limits on how much paved or built upon surfaces will be allowed in a watershed.  Impervious surfaces such as roads, parking lots and houses reduce the land’s ability to absorb and filter pollutants.  The report, produced with several North Carolina environmental organizations, is at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/NCbuffers.
 
“The greatest threat to North Carolina’s waterways is not pollution from factories or wastewater treatment systems, but non-point pollution, or widespread runoff that is caused by virtually every human activity in a watershed, from construction and farming to individual homeowners fertilizing their lawns,” said Dave McNaught, senior policy analyst with the North Carolina office of Environmental Defense.  “Protecting existing buffers in all the state’s 17 watersheds is among the most important, cost-effective steps North Carolina can take to hold the line against increasing non-point pollution.”

“Buffer rules are already working to reduce pollution in the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse river basins and in part of the Catawba basin, but development of buffer protections has been piecemeal across the state.  What North Carolina needs now is a statewide buffer rule that will help maintain water quality in all its river basins.  In addition, a buffer rule will protect stream banks, wildlife habitat and downstream property owners,” said McNaught.