Dangerous Drought Bill Advances Past Second Reading

This post archived from WNC Citizens Blog.


House Bill 2499 [HTML Version] [PDF Download] has advanced past it's second reading in the General Assembly.

In the following article, all sections in red are direct quotes from the legislation.

The bill has the innocuous-sounding title "AN ACT to improve Drought preparedness and response in North Carolina, as recommended by the Environmental review commission."

Here are just a few of the more egregious items I found with the legislation:
Section 4. (a):
(9) Any member of the Commission or any person authorized by it, shall have the right to enter upon any private or public lands or waters for the purpose of making investigations and studies reasonably necessary in the gathering of facts concerning streams and watersheds, subject to responsibility for any damage done to property entered.

I wonder if this includes posted land. And you can guarantee this will be just another camel nose under the tent that will further threaten our nearly non-existent property rights.





And if you want to have nightmares, just read the amended § 143‑355.2. Water conservation measures for drought, which includes measures for requiring local governments to implement water conservation measures whether they are in a drought condition or not, at the discretion of the Secretary. This includes water source restrictions in multiple counties or municipalities when one are has been declared to be in drought, and the neighboring area is not.

And here is the biggie: SECTION 6. The Environmental Review Commission, as part of its ongoing study of the allocation of water resources in the State required by Section 1 of S.L. 2007‑518, shall study whether and to what extent private groundwater wells and the use of water produced by private groundwater wells should be regulated by the State or units of local government. The Environmental Review Commission shall report its findings and recommendations, including any legislative proposals, to the General Assembly as provided by Section 1 of S.L. 2007‑518, as amended.

Here is the smoking gun that was denied earlier...the regulation of private wells. The State of North Carolina will be investigating whether or not they will regulate your private wells, and that includes putting meters on wells, no matter what Joe Sam Queen said in this Sound Off Buncombe Video. How else will the State of North Carolina determine your water usage unless they put a meter on the wells?

People, this should be the time we pick up our pitch forks, torches, and buckets of tar to let our elected representatives in Raleigh know that we are watching them, and we are not happy.

There is much more that is wrong with this bill, especially in the enforcement section where fines and penalties are spelled out.

Here is how the western delegation of the NC House voted last night on this legislation:

AYES

Bob England (D-112)

Susan Fisher (D-114)

Bruce Goforth (D-115)

Phillip Haire (D-119)

Ray Rapp (D-118)

NOES

Phillip Frye (R-84)

Carolyn Justus (R-117)

Trudi Walend (R-113)

Roger West (R-120)

NOT VOTING

Charles Thomas (R-116)

You can click on the links to find out how to get in touch with the representatives, and be polite with regardless of how they voted. Get your point across politely.