Orange County NC Website
Review Commission, <br />criticized DEQ for retract- <br />ing the March report and <br />then misleading the public <br />about missing the April 1 <br />deadline for producing the <br />report, which the General <br />Assembly set last year <br />when it approved the state <br />budget. <br />A DEQ spokeswoman <br />said the state's Legislative <br />Analysis Division granted <br />the department an exten- <br />sion, but the division's <br />leader denied that claim <br />and said his division had <br />no legal authority to do so. <br />Environmentalists cried <br />foul again after a water <br />expert was demoted from <br />his role on the Environ- <br />mental Management <br />Commission, a 15 -mem- <br />ber group of DEQ advisers <br />responsible for adopting <br />rules for protecting the <br />state's air and water. <br />Steve Rowlan, whom <br />Gov. Pat McCrory appoint- <br />ed as EMC chairman in <br />January, removed Steve <br />Tedder from his role as <br />chairman of the Water <br />Quality Committee a few <br />days after Tedder ques- <br />tioned DEQ for retracting <br />the March SolarBee report. <br />Tedder's committee was <br />scheduled to review the <br />report, and his removal <br />prompted another commis - <br />sioner, Thomas Craven, to <br />resign from his role as <br />chairman of a separate <br />committee in protest of <br />Rowlan. <br />Rowlan rejected the <br />notion that his decision to <br />remove Tedder and two <br />others from their commit- <br />tee assignments was a <br />reaction to their opinions <br />of SolarBees. <br />Several lawmakers from <br />Guilford and Wake said <br />Thursday that they haven't <br />identified other strategies <br />for cleaning up the lake, <br />but it's clear they prefer <br />different approaches. <br />Rep. Nelson Dollar, a <br />Cary Republican, said he <br />thinks lawmakers should <br />seek a solution that ad- <br />dresses the concerns of <br />Jordan Lake users and <br />upstream communities. <br />McGrady, meanwhile, <br />suggested taking a "pollu- <br />ter- pays" approach. <br />"I don't want to be crit- <br />ical when I think they've <br />done the right thing," <br />McGrady said, referencing <br />DEQ's "curious" past <br />actions on SolarBee <br />reports. <br />"I presume that they're <br />doing it (removing Solar - <br />Bees from Jordan Lake) for <br />the reason they suggested, <br />which is science - based," <br />McGrady said. "Why don't <br />we make a science -based <br />decision to keep pollutants <br />out? ... As I understand the <br />Jordan Lake Rules, that was <br />the concept." <br />Paid A. Specht: <br />919 - 829 - 4870,, <br />@AndySpecht <br />