NCDENR had been trading away flows needed for healthy streams
January 15, 2010
Columbia, SC – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined last week that North
Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) may not allow land
purchase or protection as a substitute for requiring the adequate stream flows needed for healthy
rivers. EPA instructed the state to discontinue using the policies which allowed land for water
swaps pending further review. In the same letter to NCDENR, EPA explained that certain landfor-water trades may violate water quality regulations, and it requested that NCDENR provide
information on past applications of its policy for further EPA review. EPA’s determination
could affect all North Carolina rivers with hydroelectric power dams, which include most of the
state’s major water courses.
NCDENR is required under the federal Clean Water Act to assure that rivers have sufficient
water flows to maintain fish and wildlife, recreation, and water supply. However, instead of
meeting those requirements, NCDENR has been negotiating land swaps with the companies that
operate dams along rivers. EPA explained that adequate river flows are essential for clean water
and that North Carolina cannot trade them away. Just as life on land needs clean air, river life
needs clean, flowing water for survival. No other conservation measure, even those with other
public benefits such as land protection, can replace the essential values provided by water
flowing in a river.
EPA’s determination is a great victory for North Carolina’s rivers and should better assure
healthy water flows below hydropower dams in North Carolina and beyond. The determination
could be especially pertinent to the Catawba, Yadkin, and Pee Dee Rivers where the flawed
policy was recently applied by the state during dam relicensing proceedings.
“A healthy river requires both sufficient flowing water and natural lands to buffer the stream
from development impacts,” said Gerrit Jobsis, Southeast Regional Director at American Rivers.
“We applaud the EPA for clear guidance on North Carolina’s detrimental policy and look
forward to restoring rivers where it was wrongly applied. While we strongly support land
protection when it is done for the right reasons, acquiring land by sacrificing a river's health is
never right.”
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Press Release courtesy of American Rivers