The 2011 State of the Environment report paints a rosy picture of a state program responsible for offsetting the water quality damage generated by new roads, office parks and shopping centers.
The Ecosystem Enhancement Program has more than 580 offsetting projects ranging from stream and wetland restorations to stream buffers that are intended to absorb pollutants such as phosphorous and nitrogen. The state environment report said 95 percent of these projects were meeting regulatory criteria.
Tad Boggs, a program spokesman, later acknowledged in an email exchange that the 95 percent statistic was not representative of all projects. It referred to an internal review of slightly less than a fifth of its projects. Boggs said in the email "perhaps the report language should have been worded differently."
The report also goes on to cite an oft-repeated statistic that has made some environmentalists cringe: "Not a single NCDOT road project has been delayed since 2003 because of a lack of mitigation, which has helped move forward more than $8 billion in transportation projects."
A three-part News & Observer series published in April, Washed Away, found numerous problems with the program, particularly with stream restoration projects.
More than 30 stream restorations failed during or after construction, often requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs that were typically covered by the program.
More than 70 projects either finished or will finish at least a year behind schedule because of problems with construction, establishing vegetation or required monitoring.
Such problems can be double trouble for the state's environment. These troubled projects often have been put up against development that has already destroyed streams and wetlands before the projects can be completed. And when stream restorations fail, they can become polluters by sending sediment downstream to drinking water sources.
Program officials acknowledged they needed to do a better job tracking repairs. They have developed a new financial database to better track costs and created a scientific advisory board to address water quality concerns. In June, state lawmakers passed a law that requires the program to first use a process for restoration work that places the burden of repair costs on the companies that do the work.
