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North Carolina Watershed Planning Ordinance

Regulations
Watershed Planning   
2004
State
Urban | Suburban | Rural
Section 143-214.5 requires local governments to adopt water-supply watershed management programs to improve or protect future or existing water supplies. The state Environmental Management Commission designates locations that qualify as watersheds and which thus must be protected under this section. § 143-214.5(d). A local government’s program must meet the minimum standards established by the state Environmental Management Commission. § 143-214.5(a). The Commission is directed to assist local governments in creating their programs in part by developing a model local water supply watershed management and protection ordinance. §143-214.5(d). This model ordinance is to include, at a minimum, options for a combination of controlling development density and providing for performance-based alternatives to development density controls. § 143-214.5(d). Should a local government fail to adopt a water-supply watershed management program, or if its program does not meet the Commission’s standards, the Commission is authorized to assume responsibility for that jurisdiction’s watershed protection. § 143-214.5(e).