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Project Archive & Case Studies
Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area Rule
Ground water withdrawals in the confined aquifers of North Carolina’s Central Coastal Plain have exceeded the rate at which the aquifers are recharging.
To prevent significant aquifer dewatering and saltwater intrusion, the state's environmental management authority designated 15 counties as a capcity use area and granted the NC Division of Water Resources (DWR)permit authority. The Division proposed a ground water withdrawal permitting program that would allocate withdrawals based on hydrogeologic analysis and computer ground water flow modeling. Major water users including municipalities, industries, and irrigators were concerned that the proposed permitting program was too vague and left too many uncertainties for future planning.
An ad hoc group of stakeholders represented by the NC League of Municipalities and industrial and agricultural leaders requested the Division to reformulate their proposed rule with their input. In January 2000, the Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area (CCPCUA) Stakeholder Committee was convened to review alternatives for permitting withdrawals and attempt to formulate a recommended rule to the Environmental Management commission.
Neuse Buffer Rule
A major algal bloom and subsequent hypoxic conditions in the summer of 1995 near New Bern, North Carolina led to a major fish kill in the lower Neuse River. This incident, together with an unrelated pollution event in a nearby river basin that same summer brought about a major public outcry to protect the state’s waterways. A spate of legislation and rule making followed, with a goal of reducing nitrogen loading in the Neuse and two other major rivers. The legislature created a stakeholder committee to make recommendations on rules to establish riparian buffers along the the Neuse River and its tributaries.
Bankhead National Forest Health and Restoration Initiative
The William B. Bankhead National Forest is located on the Southern Cumberland Plateau in northwestern Alabama.The Bankhead's 180,581 acres are managed for multiple uses, including recreation, timber, wildlife and fish, water and soil, wilderness and range. It is the largest remaining tract of unfragmented deciduous forest in the state, and continues to protect water quality and serve as a watershed to local municipalities.
During the past decade, the Bankhead has experienced an infestation of the southern pine beetle that has killed an estimated 22,000 acres of pine forest. Restoration of the forest to a healthy condition will require significant changes in forest management, an issue that had generated a great deal of interest from a large number of stakeholders.The history of Forest Service management on the Bankhead can be characterized as controversial, lacking general public support and trust.
The Forest Service is working to change this pattern and is moving forward in a spirit of cooperation, to encourage the varied parties who have an interest in forest management to work together to seek common ground.
