Commission Proceedings 



that the provision had not yet been used, because all funds used to administer brownfields 

 agreements up to this point have come from the federal government. Mr. Nicholson also 

 stated that an alternative way to fiind the Brownfields Program would be to place a small 

 fee on greenfield development. 



Mr. Warshauer also recommended the establishment of an impact tax on greenfield 

 development to fund the Brownfields Program. He explained that charging a fee would 

 make brownfield agreements unaffordable to small businesses seeking to redevelop 

 blighted properties. Mr. Washauer gave several examples of brownfields agreements that 

 have successfully been completed in Charlotte. 



ERC members expressed concem that the State had not approved more brownfields 

 agreements. Mr. Nicholson responded that the program had not yet received any State 

 funding, and that the limited federal funding for the program may soon be terminated. 

 The concept of providing property tax waivers for redeveloped properties was also 

 discussed. 



Adopt-a-Beach Program 



Michael J. Lopazanski, Coastal and Ocean Policy Analyst for the Division of Coastal 

 Management in DENR, presented the annual report on the Adopt-A-Beach Program. He 

 said the program was popular, but had received no funding for several years. ERC 

 members commented that legislation should be introduced to drop the annual reporting 

 requirement if the General Assembly does not appropriate money for the program. 



Animal waste lagoons 



David S. Vogel, Director of the Division of Soil and Water Conservation in DENR, 

 presented an interim report on the required inventory of inactive lagoons and ranking of 

 the extent to which each lagoon poses a threat to public health, the environment, or the 

 State's natural resources. He said the final report was not yet finished due to a recent 

 snowstorm. Mr. Vogel said 1,031 inactive lagoons had been identified so far, 628 of 

 which had been visited by DENR staff. He said the risk rankings of the lagoons would be 

 based on the risk to groundwater, concentrations of nutrients and contaminants in the 

 lagoons, and the strength of the lagoon embankments. He said a final report should be 

 ready by April 25, 2000. 



Mr. Vogel also gave an update on the implementation of the State's program to buy 

 out intensive swine operations in the floodplain. He said all conservation easements 

 acquired through the buy-out program would require soil and water conservation plans 

 and the restoration of the sites. He added that an advisory panel would choose among the 

 82 applications for buy-outs at 79 sites. Funding all the applications would require $50 

 million, and only $5 million is available for the program. In response to questions about 

 why the buy-out program applies only to swine operations and not poultry operations, 

 Mr. Vogel said new swine operations were prevented by law from locating in the 

 floodplain, which is not the case for other types of animal operations. 



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