North Carolina is no longer able to protect water supplies and comply with the Clean Water Act because of anti-regulation policies set by the Republican-controlled Legislature, according to a new petition to EPA.
Filed by environmental groups in the Tar Heel State, the petition asks the Biden administration to take the unprecedented step of revoking the state’s authority to issue and enforce federal water quality permits.
“It’s time for us to call in help from the federal EPA to insist that certain things occur to ensure our drinking water is clean and that citizens don’t bear the cost of delay,” said Mary Maclean Asbill, North Carolina director at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the environmental groups.
The North Carolina General Assembly has gradually chipped away at the Department of Environmental Quality’s ability to set science-based regulations for harmful pollutants like “forever chemicals” and to curb pollution from sewage treatment plants, the petition says.
