Central Coast Advocacy

Current Issues


New Grant Could Help White Oak

Cedar Point, a small town in western Carteret County, has received a federal grant to help control stormwater pollution in the lower White Oak River. The grant will help the town and its neighbor, Cape Carteret, devise their own stormwater ordinance and help pay to install techniques to reduce runoff from houses, business and public buildings in Cedar Point.


Pamlico Buffers

The N.C. Division of Water Quality the Division (DWQ) and the Division of Coastal Management (DCM), responding to concerns raised by Frank Tursi, our regional coastal advocate, and two Waterkeepers®, improved an agreement that the two agencies have to enforce vegetated buffers along the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico rivers.

The 50-foot streamside buffers are required as part of the state law that designates the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico as “nutrient sensitive.” Undisturbed vegetated buffers are effective in treating nitrogen and phosphorus in stormwater runoff, but DWQ, which is responsible for enforcing the law, has been lax in ensuring that requirement is met.

DWQ, through a memorandum of understanding, recently handed off monitoring the buffer rules to DCM. Frank; Heather Jacobs, the Tar-Pamlico keeper; and Larry Baldwin, the lower Neuse keeper, met with DCM officials to explain our concerns.

The three keepers and the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill later signed a joint letter to the two agencies asking that some provisions in the memo be strengthened or eliminated to better ensure that the buffer rules are followed.

The agencies addressed our most pressing concern by improving language in the agreement that before disturbing the buffer to install a bulkhead, for instance, an applicant must first show that no other practical alternative exists. Though that is the clear intent of the law authorizing the buffers, DWQ rarely held applicants to the standard.

  • Learn more about the Central Coastal Advocate


To Report a Violation

  • Call Coastal Advocate Frank Tursi at 252-393-8185 or 252-241-3505 (cell)
  • Email Frank
  • File a Pollution Report

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