Sierra Club - North Carolina Chapter

S 151 largely upends 2011 compromise legislation sponsored by Sens. Brown and Rabon. S 151 removes the cap on the number of terminal groins which can be built and drops provisions designed to ensure that local communities do not incur debt without a vote of the people. S 151 also removes fiscal protections intended to ensure that neighboring properties will be compensated for any ensuing damage. “North Carolinians enjoy natural beaches that are the envy of the East Coast. This is because our state leaders have historically adopted a conservative management policy that bans hardened structures—seawalls, jetties and groins of any kind—from our ocean beaches,” said Molly Diggins, state director of the NC Sierra Club. “Today, the Senate gutted compromise legislation passed just two years ago in order to make it easier to construct hardened structures,” added Diggins. “Today’s vote is bad for beaches, bad for taxpayers, and bad for North Carolinians who love their state’s natural beaches."