Senate Agriculture committee considers Wilson for DEQ secretary
The North Carolina Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee reviewed Reid Wilson's appointment as secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality during its hearing on Wednesday.
The hearing was billed as 'discussion only.' Lawmakers will take a vote at their next meeting.
Wilson formerly served as secretary for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources from 2021 to 2024. Before that, he was DNCR's chief deputy secretary from 2017 to 2020.
Following his appointment earlier this year by Gov. Josh Stein, he's been serving as DEQ secretary on an interim basis while awaiting confirmation.
At the national level, Congress has been working on a federal budget that would include cuts to some of the areas under DEQ's purview.
Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake) asked what the cuts would mean to DEQ and how Wilson would respond.
About half of DEQ's budget comes from federal sources, Wilson said. In particular, the proposed budget would remove $31.5 million from operating grants.
'We would have to let a whole lot of people go, and the consequences of that are that our permitting processes would take longer, our responses to spills and other problems would take longer, our responsiveness and assistance to businesses would not be as strong,' Wilson said. 'Everything we do, we would do less well.'
Chaudhuri jokingly followed up with, 'Do you still want this job?' Wilson answered in the affirmative.
Sen. Jim Burgin (R-Harnett, Lee, Sampson) asked about water quality, specifically microplastics.
Wilson said DEQ staff are looking into the issue, and the department also collaborates with others like university researchers to learn more.
'Water quality is a huge priority,' he said. 'It is a significant health concern, so we're gonna' be involved with that.'
After Hurricane Helene swept through the western portion of the state, DEQ worked closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide mobile programs testing the quality of drinking wells.
Wilson said the agencies found out how polluted the drinking water was, how to get it cleaned, and tested it to make sure it was healthy before people drank it again.
'For folks with a well in the yard or on their property, they're more vulnerable, so we want to make sure we are doing as much testing,' Wilson said. 'We have a [fund] which helps pay for additional private well tests around the state when we determine that that is needed.'
Lawmakers also voted to approve two pieces of legislation at Tuesday's meeting, which they discussed yesterday: House Bill 247 ('8-1-1 Amendments') and House Bill 694 ('Study Water/Wastewater Regionalization').
The former heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the latter proceeds to the Senate Rules Committee.
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