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Table of Contents

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STATE

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WATER

DROUGHT PLANS: Even though recent rains have lessened the intensity of the drought across the state, Governor Mike Easley said earlier this month that he wants lawmakers to modernize the state's water system, give him more power in dealing with drought and require more extensive drought planning. "We really have a 19th-century water system in place in the 21st century," Easley said at a news conference. Easley said he wants to expand the North Carolina governor's power to order water systems to provide water to a neighboring community. He also wants the ability to order communities in the two most severe levels of drought to either set water use restrictions or comply with ones set by state regulators. Currently, North Carolina’s governor has the power to order such moves only when a health or safety emergency is declared. But by the time such an emergency exists, Easley said, those actions aren't very useful.

Easley said he also wants to give local water agencies the authority to impose mandatory water conservation measures to all water users in their jurisdiction, including customers of privately owned water utilities regulated by the State Utilities Commission. Systems also would be banned from cutting prices for customers who use a lot of water. Easley is also proposing establishing a sales tax holiday for the purchase of water-efficient devices. In addition, Easley wants to change the state building code to require water-efficient fixtures in new construction and allow citizens to use dishwater and bathwater to water trees and other plants. That water is now supposed to go down the drain.

The N.C. League of Municipalities, whose members operate about 300 local water systems, will review the recommendations, spokeswoman Margot Christensen said. "We believe that local governments -- cities and towns -- know best how to handle things under their circumstances," she said. Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said he wasn't necessarily opposed to giving Easley or state regulators more power, but said the focus should be on increasing the water supply. For example, businesses can save water by collecting stormwater runoff that's not drinkable but can be used for cleaning, landscaping and other jobs. Seventy-one of North Carolina's 100 counties are currently labeled as experiencing the two worst levels of drought. The drought is so severe that despite recent rains, the state needs another 24 to 30 inches of rain to bring water levels back to normal, Easley said. (Gary D. Robertson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; Barry Smith, FREEDOM NEWSPAPERS, 3/11/08)

WATER SUPPLIES: Six western North Carolina towns will get money from the Appalachian Regional Commission to help expand water supplies. Governor Easley said the commission awarded $1.58 million in grants for drought projects. The towns receiving the money are: Lenoir, Valdese, Tryon, Marshall, Mars Hill and Blowing Rock. Easley said the towns could run out of water if the drought continues. The grant money will help the towns connect to new water sources. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 3/17/08)

WATER USE: Businesses and residents that use private water supplies in North Carolina are required to report how much water they use. But state officials say many aren't, and that they are considering tightening the rules. The state's water-supply planning chief, Linwood Peele, said golf courses appear to be the most common offenders, though it's likely an honest oversight. Golf courses were targeted last fall when state officials mailed almost 700 letters informing course owners about the rules. In response, registrations nearly tripled. State environmental secretary Bill Ross said the state's water supply can't be managed if regulators don't know how much water is being used. (ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES, 3/24/08)

CANDIDATES ON WATER: The two Democratic candidates for governor steered away from calling for centralized approaches to water management in North Carolina. The Libertarian didn't. And the one Republican candidate appearing at the forum organized by Duke University's Nicholas Institute discussed regional bodies to steer water planning and policy. All four candidates -- Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore, Republican Bob Orr and Libertarian Mike Munger -- agreed that the state will face increasing challenges in the future to meet water demand.

Moore said the state will have to bring down per capita water use in the future to meet demand, with a combination of more conservation, better system efficiency and land use measures. But he focused mainly on incentives to bring about those changes. "Once we know it's a finite resource, then we'll know we have to work together," Moore said. Perdue emphasized the role of the governor to bring local government and other water users together to work out consensus arrangements to become more efficient water users. "It belongs to all of us. That's what the governor can say," Perdue said. But she steered clear of notions designed to impose sharing arrangements or state permitting of water withdrawals. Orr also spoke broadly about bringing experts together to work out how to plan for water shortages before they happen. Orr, though, said that regional commissions, set up along river basin lines, could help the planning effort. Munger began the forum by stating that he wasn't in favor of top-down planning. But he then proposed state guidelines that would force local water suppliers to adopt tiered water pricing in which higher volume users pay higher rates for amounts over certain thresholds. "The only thing that is going to increase efficiency quickly is to go to a two- or three-tiered pricing structure," Munger said. (THE INSIDER, 3/26/08)

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ENERGY

POWER PLANTS: An environmental group has asked the state Utilities Commission for a moratorium on power plant construction until a hearing is held to determine whether new generators are necessary. New coal-fired and nuclear plants will be costly to consumers and harmful to the environment, according to the group's filing with the commission. It says there's more than enough available electricity to meet current and future energy demands -- even with the region's growth. "We're at a critical point," said Jim Warren, director of the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network. "Are we going to keep building these big plants at tremendous risk to the environment or do we take steps to produce clean electricity?" The group's request for a hearing was included in a motion questioning the state's long-range energy outlook spelled out by utility companies. Utilities have to file annual reports with the commission that detail how much electricity utilities will need to kee! p up with supply and demand.

Duke Energy Corp. and Progress Energy say they need new plants to meet future growth in the Carolinas. Duke is building a $2.4 billion, 800-megawatt unit at its Cliffside Steam Station. The company also has begun the application process for two nuclear reactors near Gaffney, S.C. Progress has begun the application process for two additional nuclear reactors at its Shearon Harris site near Raleigh. "We add 50,000 new customers a year in the Carolinas ... so clearly growth is in this area," said Duke spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger. But Warren said those units are not needed, and he wants a hearing before the commission to prove it. He said utilities have inflated population and customer growth projections. And he said there is already an oversupply of electricity in the Southeast. (Mitch Weiss, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 3/17/08)

YADKIN RIVER CONTROL: Davidson and Stanly counties are questioning Alcoa Power Generating Inc.'s control of the Yadkin River. Both counties are asking Gov. Mike Easley to get involved in their dispute with the company. The counties question Alcoa's use of several lakes along the Yadkin River to generate electric power, earning the company about $44 million annually. Alcoa's license expires next month and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to make a decision soon on a new 50-year license. There have been complaints about water levels in the lakes. Stanley County Commissioner Lindsey Dunevant says the state could use the water during droughts. Alcoa spokesman Gene Ellis says the new license will have no effect on water supplies. Seth Effron, Easley's deputy press secretary, said that Easley has been contacted by Stanly County and has not made any decision. "This is a complicated federal regulatory process, and the governor’s office is still reviewing the matter," he said. (Michael Hewlett, WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 3/26/08)

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TRANSPORTATION

21ST CENTURY TRANSPORTATION: The 21st Century Transportation Committee will likely recommend that North Carolina remedy an expected shortfall in transportation funding by ending an annual transfer of road money to other uses and supporting a huge road-building bond package, the panel's chairman said Monday. "There is a growing public appetite for transportation solutions," chairman Brad Wilson said after the panel met in Raleigh. "Those solutions are going to cost money." The committee has not decided how it would repay the debt created by a bond package. Panel members also haven't chosen the projects the debt should fund or whether to provide more local tax options to counties. Legislative leaders and Gov. Mike Easley created the committee last year to find a way to narrow an expected shortfall between transportation revenues and highway and public transportation needs.

Stephen Zelnak Jr., chief executive of Martin Marietta Materials, said the finance subcommittee is leaning toward recommending that the $172 million annual transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the state's general operating fund be phased out. That money could go toward paying back a $1.8 billion bond package for transportation the subcommittee also is considering. The transfer essentially pays the state for a tax that used to go to the operating fund before the trust fund was created in 1989. The bond package, which voters would have to approve in a statewide referendum, is another likely recommendation by the full committee, provided that it remains around or above $2 billion, Wilson said. The Legislature would have to approve any panel recommendations.

Another panel subcommittee unveiled a proposal that would expand to about 30 the number of metropolitan counties that could approve local tax options to pay for public transportation needs. About a half-dozen counties now use such authority, according to documents presented to the commission. Under the draft proposal, the new local tax money would provide matching funds to tap into a new state fund and federal grants to pay for public transportation projects. The proposal doesn't say, however, where that new state fund would get its money, equal to $161 million annually on average over the next 12 years. (Gary D. Robertson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 3/24/08)

DREDGING COMPLAINT: The federal government has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Raleigh seeking stiff penalties for the state Department of Transportation and two former employees accused of digging an illegal ferry channel in Currituck Sound four years ago. The complaint said the dredging violated federal pollution control laws. The complaint seeks $27,500 for each day of the violation from May 6, 2004, when the work began, to Sept. 27, 2005, when the area was restored. According to the complaint, state workers used propeller wash from workboats to dig a channel for a pontoon boat ferry to run across the sound.

Lisa Crawley, a spokeswoman for the transportation department, said officials could not comment on pending litigation. Jerry Gaskill of Cedar Island, former director of the state ferry system, and Billy R. Moore, former superintendent of dredging and maintenance for the ferry system, were also named as defendants in the complaint. Gaskill and Moore were previously fined $5,000, sentenced to three years of probation and six months of house arrest on criminal charges stemming from the work. Moore had pleaded guilty to ordering the work. Gaskill pleaded not guilty and was convicted of making false statements to investigators -- an accusation he denied.

The work was part of an effort to accommodate the ferry between the Outer Banks and the mainland in Currituck County. State and county officials established the ferry initially to carry students who live on the Outer Banks to schools on the mainland. But the county did not obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers for the proposed dock site. The state, which paid about $277,000 for the pontoon boat, tried unsuccessfully to sell the 50-foot vessel on eBay. It remains idle at the state shipyard in Manns Harbor in Dare County. (Jerry Allegood, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 3/26/08)

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NATIONAL

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PEs HEAD TO CAPITOL HILL: When NSPE members go to Capitol Hill on April 30, they will be drawing attention to three pieces of legislation:

The National Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2007 (S.775 and H.R. 3538) would create a commission that would be responsible for completing a study highlighting the state of U.S infrastructure by February 2009.

The Strategic Technology/Engineering Program (STEP) Act of 2007 (H.R. 3634) would establish a loan forgiveness program for employed engineers and students pursuing, or interested in pursuing, degrees in science, technology, and engineering.

The Good Samaritan Protection for Construction, Architectural, and Engineering Volunteers Act (H.R. 2067) would provide design professionals with qualified immunity from liability for negligence when providing services or equipment on a volunteer basis in response to a declared emergency or disaster. The bill has sat in committee since its introduction in April 2007.

To date, these bills have made little progress in Congress. "These bills need some additional champions, and we want to help garner more support to get some movement," says Dan Tanksley P.E., who serves as chair of NSPE’s Legislative & Government Affairs Committee.

NEBRASKA BILL WOULD BOOST EDUCATION REQUIREMENT FOR PEs : Nebraska has become the first state in the country to introduce legislation that would require college-level education beyond a bachelor’s degree for licensure as a professional engineer.

The bill, introduced in January, would require engineering graduates to earn an additional 30 credit hours in upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level courses before taking the PE exam. Among the bill's supporters are the state's board of engineers and architects and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Since 2002, NSPE has supported the concept of requiring education beyond the accredited four-year degree for licensure, and the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying amended its Model Law (pdf) in 2006 to require additional education beyond a bachelor’s degree for licensure. The Nebraska Society of Professional Engineers has taken a neutral position on the bill.

Testifying against the bill were the American Council of Engineering Companies of Nebraska and the Nebraska section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ASME’s testimony was endorsed by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is also opposed and issued a position statement last November stating that more formal education is not necessary for licensure.

The legislature's current session is tentatively set to conclude on April 17.

Read more about this bill in the April issue of PE and view a free Web seminar: Changing the PE Paradigm in the Future: Additional Education for Professional Practice.

Comments on this topic? E-mail them to pemagazine@nspe.org for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of PE