As thousands of new rooflines rise on North Carolina's inner coast, the rules designed to stop pollution and keep coastal waters clean for shellfish are failing, state officials say.

Regulations allow subdivisions to be built so densely that they frequently overwhelm the land's capacity to filter mud, oil, excrement and chemicals from roofs, roads and yards before the pollution reaches the water. And developers of small projects can easily avoid some state rules.

Many local governments, which make most land-use decisions, are only starting to think about ways to limit the state's latest land rush.

Five coastal counties still have no zoning. Four others have large areas without it.

The waterfronts attract investors as well as homeowners drawn by the boating, fishing and calm of coastal living. They are now being developed at an unprecedented pace; more than 34,000 houses and condominiums are planned or under way in the 20-county crescent from Currituck County in the northeast to Brunswick County at the South Carolina border, a News & Observer survey has found.

As development has spread from Brunswick and Wilmington up the coast, one tidal creek after another has been closed to shellfishing. Pollution settles in the clams and oysters as they filter water, making them unsafe to eat. North Carolina waters permanently off-limits to shellfishing have increased 19 percent since 1984.

Shellfishing is an important part of the state's commercial fishing industry, which provides 4,000 jobs. But in a broader sense, the health of shellfish is an indicator of water quality, which in turn affects swimming, wildlife and the attractiveness of the coast.

"That is where the canary is singing and all our shellfish waters are closing," said Courtney Hackney, a marine biologist and chairman of the Coastal Resources Commission, which sets some state policies for development along the shore.

"We've largely failed in our protection plans for handling stormwater runoff," Hackney said. "At the rate we are going, there will be no open shellfish waters anywhere near people. We're not far from that right now."

Despite his position, Hackney has limited impact on the state's rules. Several different state agencies oversee the coast.

And yet another group holds the trump card: the General Assembly, which has made it difficult for regulators to set limits on homes, driveways and roads. One key change adopted by regulators to limit stormwater pollution has been held up for three years by the powerful real estate industry.

Pollution caused by runoff is difficult to control because state rules routinely allow new development to cover up to 25 percent of the ground as close as 30 feet to shellfishing waters. When the ground is covered with hard surfaces, more stormwater finds its way into fragile estuaries, carrying with it materials that can contaminate shellfish.

Letter of the law

Beyond 575 feet from the water, the state has less control. And that's just where Kenny West's Emerald View subdivision is being built.

Emerald View is in Carteret County, just off N.C. 24, with a fine view of Bogue Sound. The 23-lot subdivision on 25 acres needed minimal approval from the state, and it met local subdivision regulations. It has only a grassy ditch to catch and filter stormwater, a method state regulators deride as a pipeline to the sound.

West said the subdivision met all government requirements, and it's not particularly dense. As for the runoff, "I'm not an engineer, so I can't speak to that," West said. "It will go in the ground, as far as I know. I don't think it will drain into Bogue Sound."

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