Senate Bill 605 makes two main changes to North Carolina water policy. First, it removes certain subbasin designations used in the interbasin transfer (IBT) permitting process for the Haw River, Deep River, and Contentnea Creek areas, so that water transfers between those areas within the same major river basin no longer require an IBT certificate. The bill’s findings state that these changes are intended to help fast-growing communities, improve drought resilience and emergency water management, and reduce regulatory barriers that can affect water planning, infrastructure financing, and consumer costs.
Second, the bill revises how a 2020 Farm Act provision applies the TMDL transport factor to nutrient offset credits for wastewater permits in the Neuse River Basin. It limits the current rule-based application to local governments in the Neuse Basin with fewer than 15,000 customer connections and allows the Department of Environmental Quality to begin new watershed modeling to establish updated transport zones and delivery factors. If validated by qualified professionals and adopted by rule, those new modeling results would replace the temporary statutory approach.
Impact
The bill amends G.S. 143-215.22G to redefine river basin/subbasin treatment for IBT purposes and eliminates the need for an interbasin transfer certificate for certain transfers initiated or modified after enactment. It also changes Section 15 of S.L. 2020-18, as amended, narrowing the current TMDL transport-factor application for certain small Neuse River Basin local governments and creating a pathway for DEQ and the Environmental Management Commission to adopt new transport zones and delivery factors by rule. The practical effect is to ease water-supply planning and permitting in selected basins while preserving state oversight through environmental modeling and rulemaking.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests broad support for the bill, with the amendment passing 47-0 and second reading passing 46-1. The bill text itself frames the changes as pragmatic responses to growth, water-supply needs, and regulatory efficiency. No committee transcript is available, but the near-unanimous votes indicate generally favorable sentiment toward the measure.
Contention
The main policy tension is between easing water-transfer restrictions for growing communities and maintaining environmental and watershed protections. Supporters emphasize flexibility, drought resilience, infrastructure planning, and affordability, while the affected regulatory changes could raise concerns about reduced oversight of transfers within the Cape Fear and Neuse basins. The TMDL section is also potentially contentious because it temporarily changes how nutrient offset credits are calculated and applies only to certain small local governments until DEQ completes modeling and the EMC adopts new rules. The bill appears to resolve these issues by tying the temporary approach to future technical validation and rulemaking.