The N.C. House approved an amended version of the drought management bill this afternoon with a 92-20 vote.
Here are some debate highlights:
Rep. Ray Rapp, D-Madison, gets two conservation groups and the Sierra Club added to the state’s Drought Management Council.
Rep. Charles Thomas, R-Buncombe, amends the bill to have action taken if it is discovered that a human’s groundwater supply is contaminated.
House Minority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, gets a property rights amendment included that makes laying temporary water lines a “taking” and the same for recovery as a “quick taking” and claims it quickly gets money to people bearing the burden.
Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, has several amendments.
His property rights amendment conflicted with Stam’s amendment, so he withdrew it. The same amendment includes a provision that says a water system can’t be forced to give up more than its excess supply.
That provision is withdrawn with the whole amendment. Lewis tries again on page 13, lines 25-37, with changing a water shortage emergency definition to the one under statute rather than “the needs of human consumption, necessary sanitation and public safety” and as an open government argument, adds language that would require public disclosure of findings requiring a water shortage emergency.
Rep. Pryor Gibson, D-Montgomery, the bill sponsor, says although the amendments and intent are appropriate, none of the stakeholders have signed off on this, and he wants to make sure they are okay with it. Gibson says this can be fixed in the Senate. He strongly opposes the amendment and Lewis withdraws it.
Lewis tries one more time and says he saved the best for last. He tries to amend section eight, which lays out all the emergency powers granted to the governor. He says that with extraordinary powers, there’s a need to sunset the authority granted on March 31, 2009, and require that the ERC study what powers and duties governemnt officers and agencies have related to water shortage emergencies.
Gibson goes nuts and stongly opposes the amendment. He says sunsetting it defeats the whole purpose of the bill. The stakeholders in the working group have come up with this compromise on this bill, and this amendment would blow the whole thing up. Rep. Lucy Allen, D-Franklin, also speaks against the amendment. Lewis speaks again and eloquently defends the need for open governemnt and accountability, especially with these kind of restrictions.
More than 100 bills this session have had sunsets. The amendment fails, 44-67.
Rep. Mitch Gillespie, R-McDowell, offers an amendment that prevents local governments from regulating ALL wells, making it clear private wells are excluded fom regulation. It passes, 109-3.
