[Durham INC] FW: Update and action needed: DENR budget cuts

[Pat Carstensen]

If you think that the foxes will stay out of the henhouse because they are planning on being upstanding citizens, you might be OK with this.  What has hit the news is the effect on schools from the proposed budget, but this is just as bad.
Regards, pat

Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:55:22 -0400
From: molly.diggins at sierraclub.org
Subject: Update and action needed: DENR budget cuts
To: NC-CONS-FORUM at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG

Friends,We have till next week to turn this around in the House. Please act.Molly



Budget cuts: Crippling the
ability of North Carolina's environmental agency to protect you and your community.


Note: cuts presented earlier this week
in a House appropriations committee would cripple DENR’s ability to enforce the
environmental laws and rules. Act now: 
contact your legislator, write a letter to the editor, blog, or speak out at the
April 15 and April 21 public hearings of the Joint Select Committee on
Regulatory Reform.

 

Cuts enforcement staff: No
Environmental Cop on the Beat



The cuts presented earlier this week in a House appropriations committee
represented a 33% reduction in regional office staff.  The budget proposal
would eliminate all positions in the Mooresville Regional Office near Charlotte
and about one-half of the positions in the Asheville Regional Office, resulting
in a cut of 50% in the number of positions located west of Raleigh.



The positions in the regional offices include a small number of
administrative positions, but are largely staff charged with inspections and
enforcement for the Division of Water Quality, Division of Land Resources,
Division of Air Quality, Division of Environmental Health, Division of Waste
Management, and the Division of Soil and Water Conservation. The bulk of the
cuts would be to inspectors to those who enforce the law.  That means there may be no one available to
investigate contaminated sites, mud in the water, coal ash ponds, sewage leaks
or smokestacks violations.



Cuts funding for
land Conservation


 The
House budget virtually eliminates acquisition of conservation lands.  The
House proposal cuts the Clean Water Management Trust Fund from a statutory
authorization of $100 million to a $10 million appropriation, and explicitly
prohibits the use of all but $1 million for land acquisition.  That $1
million must be used to provide buffers around military bases. The budget
diverts funds from two smaller natural resource trust funds – the Parks &
Recreation Trust Fund and the Natural Heritage Trust Fund – to pay for ongoing
operating expenses, leaving nothing for acquisition.
-- 
Molly Diggins
State Director
NC Sierra Club
(p) 919.833.8467
(e) molly.diggins at sierraclub.org




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