Commission Proceedings 



January 20, 2000 



Wetlands 



The ERC heard a report on the Wetlands Restoration Program from Ronald E. Ferrell, 

 Program Manager of the Wetlands Restoration Program in DENR. Mr. Ferrell explained 

 that wetland restoration efforts are being increasingly integrated with the basinwide water 

 quality plans developed by the Division of Water Quality. He also explained that the new 

 mitigation process, in which someone who fills a wetland can pay DENR to create a 

 mitigating wetland, is more efficient and ecologically effective than the old process, in 

 which the entity responsible for wetland destruction had to manage the mitigation project. 

 Mr. Ferrell said the program has still not achieved the goal of no net loss of wetlands. In 

 response to questions about stream restoration, Mr. Ferrell explained that increasing 

 runoff from development led to stream degredation from higher velocities and volumes of 

 water, and that this could be addressed by adding meanders and re-vegetating the banks. 

 Members raised concerns about the cost per acre and per foot for wetland and stream 

 restoration. 



Basinwide Water Quality Plans 



Coleen Sullins, Section Chief of the Water Quality Section in the Division of Water 

 Quality in DENR, described the basinwide planning process. ERC members raised 

 questions about how the basinwide plans addressed sedimentation and whether the plans 

 were successful in improving water quality in general. Ms. Sullins responded by noting 

 that nutrient reductions have been achieved in some streams, and that other agencies and 

 organizations are using the plans to coordinate their water quality protection activities. 



State Water Supply Plan 



Anthony Young, Chief of the Water Supply Planning Section of the Division of Water 

 Resources in DENR, presented the State Water Supply Plan. He explained that the plan 

 was a snapshot of the condition of the State's water resources, prepared every five years 

 by collecting data gathered at the local level. He also noted that a stakeholder process 

 was underway to develop a proposed rule for a Capacity Use Area in Eastern North 

 Carolina. Mr. Young said recent action by the General Assembly to lower the threshold 

 of water withdrawals requiring registration had improved the data available for planning, 

 but that there was still a higher threshold for reporting agricultural withdrawals. The 

 ERC then discussed the possibility of ending the agricultural exemption from the lower 

 reporting threshold. There was also some discussion about the coordination of industry 

 recruitment and water re-use initiatives with the water supply planning process. 



Fish kills 



Mark Hale, an Environmental Biologist with the Environmental Sciences Branch of 

 the Water Quality Section of the Division of Water Quality in DENR, reported that there 

 had not been a large number of fish kills in the preceding year. 



River Herring Fishery Management Plan 



The ERC heard a report on the draft River Herring Fishery Management Plan from 

 Preston Pate, Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries in DENR. The ERC deferred 



