Communications
Position: NCCBI
encourages the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR), the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) and
other related departments, divisions and commissions within state
government to provide the public with balanced, scientifically based
information on a regular basis about the state of the environment in
North Carolina.
Explanation: There
is a growing perception that DENR, EMC and other related state bodies
readily disseminate bad news concerning the environment while making
little if any effort to provide the public with information about the
many successes achieved in protecting and enhancing air and water
quality. While DENR gathers this information and annually prepares a
State of the Environment Report, the state as a whole is rarely
exposed to the positive information about how North Carolina’s
environment is improving.
NCCBI
recognizes that it is vitally important that everyone in North
Carolina, most specifically the
regulated community, continue to protect and enhance environmental
quality. NCCBI also believes that much good work has been accomplished
in environmental protection, and that state regulators should make a
more conscious effort to tell this “good news.”
Many examples of this “good news” can be
found in DENR’s 1997 State of the Environment report, which
disclosed that:
- The overall cleanliness of the state
in the state’s 17 river basins is 65 percent better than in the
1970’s.
- Only 3 percent of the surface waters
in the state don’t at least partially support their “highest and
best” use.
- Emissions of all six of the toxic
chemicals that cause air pollution are either unchanged or are down
significantly from 25 years ago.
- Only 4 percent of the land covered by
maritime forests on the Outer Banks has been sacrificed to development
in the past seven years.
The tonnage of materials recycled
through local government programs increased 225 percent from 1990 to
1995; used oil collections rose 230 percent and the number of scrap
tires going into landfills fell 425 percent.
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Administrative Procedures
Act / Regulatory Reform
Air Quality
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Brownfields Redevelopment
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Endangered Species/Critical Habitats
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Environmental Protection Policy
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Environmental Justice
Executive Summary
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Pollution Prevention, Waste Reduction, And
Energy Management
Risk Management
Sustainable Development
and Growth Planning
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Science Education
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Water Quality Protection
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Wetlands Protection
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