New Federal and State Administrations 



By Alison Davis 



Speculation is rampant in North 

 Carolina as a new president, a new 

 governor, new government leaders 

 and a new legislature dance around 

 the issues of the day. 



For coastal North 

 Carolina, the biggest 

 dance may be the 

 wetlands shuffle. The 

 N.C. Division of 

 Environmental Man- 

 agement will classify all sUHH 

 of the state's wetlands, 

 and a rumble may ensue 

 between state agencies 

 about how wet a 

 wetland is and how 

 these valuable saturated 

 soils should be man- 

 aged. 



Over at the Legisla- 

 ture, lawmakers hope to 

 waltz their way through 

 several fisheries bills, 

 while the N.C. Division 

 of Coastal Management 

 tries to rumba legisla- 

 tors out of money for 

 beach and coastal river 

 access areas. 



And sides are once again being 

 drawn for a cha-cha over the jetties 

 at Oregon Inlet. State leaders and 

 fishermen are lobbying the Clinton 

 administration to get the jetties off 

 the drawing board and into the 

 water. Meanwhile, environmental- 

 ists and geologists are lining up in 

 opposition to what they believe 

 could be a costly environmental 

 mistake. 



But so far, neither the state's 

 new administration nor the 1993 

 General Assembly has made any 



sweeping proposals or pronounce- 

 ments regarding coastal policy. 



That's not to say that changes 

 haven't been made, however — or 

 that some controversial coastal issues 

 aren't in the offing. 



C.R. Edgerlon 



Wetlands 



Wars? 



What is expected to be the 

 hottest statewide environmental issue 

 of 1993 will be of great importance 

 to the North Carolina coast. 



As required by the U.S. Environ- 

 mental Protection Agency, the N.C. 

 Environmental Management Com- 

 mission (EMC) will try this year to 

 classify all of the state's wetlands — 

 coastal and otherwise. 



The N.C. Division of Environ- 

 mental Management has proposed 

 putting every North Carolina wetland 

 into one of four classes. All coastal 

 wetlands would fall into the same 

 class, described as "salt marsh," 



according to Environ- 

 mental Management. 



The rules are not 

 intended, Environmen- 

 tal Management 

 officials say, to set 

 levels of development 

 allowed in wetland 

 areas. But like the 

 EMC's watershed 

 classifications did last 

 year, the wetlands 

 proposal is expected to 

 set off a battle between 

 developers and environ- 

 mental groups. And it 

 may lead to some 

 disagreement among 

 state agencies. 



Already, comments 

 on Environmental 

 Management's proposal 

 show differences in 

 agency approaches to 

 wetlands protection. 

 Environmental Management's 

 proposal, as required by the EPA, 

 protects only water quality. But 

 wetlands perform other valuable 

 functions, such as providing wildlife 

 habitat — and should be protected for 

 all those values, say officials with the 

 state's Division of Coastal Manage- 

 ment. 



"Our rules make no distinction 

 between values of coastal wetland 

 types based on species, location or the 

 nature of the surrounding water or 

 land," Coastal Management Director 



10 MAY/ JUNE 1993 



