H97 - 2015 Appropriations Act, Sec. 14.6.(h): Cape Fear Estuarine Restoration (SL 2015-241)

Overview: Sec. 14.6.(h) of S.L. 2015-241 provides that the General Assembly finds that New Inlet Dam (Dam) in the Cape Fear River (known locally as "The Rocks") constructed in the 19th century by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) impedes the natural hydrodynamic flow between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, and that the State should study the removal of the southern component of the Dam in order to reestablish that natural hydrodynamic flow between River and Ocean.

This section also directs the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to do all of the following:

• Notify the Army Corps of the State's intent to study the removal of the Dam.
• Issue a Request for Information for a contractor to study the removal, including costs and benefits, permitting requirements, and a removal plan.
• Undertake the process of adjusting the boundaries of the Zeke's Island component of the National Estuarine Research Reserve to exclude the Dam and immediate surrounding area.
• Report regarding implementation of the requirements of this provision to the Environmental Review Commission, the Fiscal Research Division, and the chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources by April 1, 2016.

The section also specifies that neither DENR nor any other State agency may proceed with removal of the Dam until expressly authorized to do so by an act of the General Assembly.

This section became effective July 1, 2015.