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EDITORIAL: Waters Edgy: Developers Have Discovered North Carolina's Inland Waterways. Rules Are Needed to Protect Sensitive Areas, and Lifestyles

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 7--As much as it has jolted the familiar status quo -- for better and for worse -- the development now flooding into inland coastal areas of Eastern North Carolina has been in large measure inevitable.

Until recently, even vacation-magnet counties were mainly undeveloped once the car traveled two or three miles from the Atlantic. Yet those counties have hundreds of miles of frontage along wide rivers and intracoastal waters. That proximity and access to water is proving to be too much of an attraction to pass up. Baby Boomers will soon be retiring in droves, and they want retirement homes and communities with a pleasant and relaxing lifestyle. The coastal region fills the bill for many.

All of that is great for the tax base of North Carolina's rural eastern counties. Many of them have suffered from the collapse of the tobacco industry or the loss of manufacturing jobs, or have simply never seen much growth because of their remote location.

But the growth they're now experiencing may be small comfort for families who long have lived and worked in those communities, or whose lives are tied to the water. In a sense, all North Carolinians are tied in that fashion. While most of us will never launch a boat or drop a crab net into a briny estuary, we all have economic and health stakes in keeping the state's waterways clean.

The News & Observer's Jay Price reported Sunday that more than 34,000 homes in nearly 100 subdivisions and condo projects are going up or are planned along the state's 3,000 miles of inner coastline. Paying $400,000 for a piece of land -- without a house -- is not unusual. Affluent retirees bid on lots along the creeks and rivers with as much vigor as tobacco buyers once bid for coveted Down East leaf. And where households with disposable income go, grocery stores, medical parks and big-box hardware warehouses tend to follow.

The rush of development pushes out many of those who have lived and worked in coastal communities. Businesses that depend on water access -- boat maintenance, commercial fishing and the like -- are losing that access at a rapid rate. Builders are willing to pay premium prices for large, well-located tracts, which means retirement nest eggs for landowners willing to sell.

Of greatest concern, of course, is pollution brought on by development crowded to the water's edge. Waste disposal, either with septic tanks or sewage treatment plants, can be problematic. Growing population centers require more and wider roads, and runoff laden with oil, gasoline and heavy metals trickles into waterways. The coast's blue skies are susceptible to tailpipe emissions, and ocean breezes won't always wash them clean.

The sudden growth of the hog industry in the 1990s, bringing a range of environmental challenges to Eastern North Carolina, caught the state by surprise. The legislature and Governor Easley, himself a native of the East, now shouldn't let development stretching inland from the coast sneak up on them and overrun reasonable protections of air and water.

Development may be inevitable, but local governments should turn to measures such as buffers and density caps that minimize pollution. The state should provide guidance and set necessary standards. Otherwise the risk is that the character and environment of this special region will be damaged beyond repair.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News & Observer

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