NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1979 SESSION

CHAPTER 1046
HOUSE BILL 582

AN ACT TO CREATE STATUTORY AUTHORITY FOR GRANTS FOR WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  General Statutes Chapter 143 is amended by adding a new Part 8 to Article 21 to read as follows:
"Part 8.
"Grants for Water Resources Development Projects.
"§ 143-215.70.  Secretary of Natural Resources and Community Development authorized to accept applications. — The Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development is authorized to accept applications for grants for nonfederal costs relating to water resources development projects from units of local government sponsoring such projects, except that this shall not include small watershed projects reviewed by the State Soil and Water Conservation Commission pursuant to G.S. 139-55.
"§ 143-215.71.  Purposes for which grants may be requested. — Applications for grants may be made for the nonfederal share of water resources development projects for the following purposes in amounts not to exceed the percentage of the nonfederal costs indicated:
(1)	general navigation projects that are sponsored by local governments — eighty percent (80%);
(2)	recreational navigation projects — twenty-five percent (25%);
(3)	construction costs for water management (drainage) purposes, including utility and road relocations not funded by the State Department of Transportation — sixty -six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%);
(4)	stream restoration — sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%);
(5)	protection of privately owned beaches where public access is allowed and provided for — seventy-five percent (75%);
(6)	land acquisition and facility development for recreational sites operated by local governments at impoundments owned by the United States — fifty percent (50%).
"§ 143-215.72.  Review of applications. — (a) the secretary shall receive and review applications for the grants specified in the Part and approve, approve in part, or disapprove such applications.
(b)	In reviewing each application, the secretary shall consider:
(1)	the economic, social, and environmental benefits to be provided by the project;
(2)	regional benefits of projects to an area greater than the area under the jurisdiction of the local sponsoring entity;
(3)	the financial resources of the local sponsoring entity;
(4)	the environmental impact of the project;
(5)	any direct benefit to State-owned lands and properties.
"§ 143-215.73.  Recommendation and Disbursal of Grants. — After review of grant applications, the secretary shall forward those approved or approved in part to the Advisory Budget Commission, which shall review the recommendations and approve or disapprove the transfer of funds from the department’s reserve fund into accounts for specific projects. After approval by the Advisory Budget Commission, project funds shall be disbursed and monitored by the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 139-54(5), as it appears in the 1978 Interim Supplement to the General Statutes, is amended by rewriting the second line to read:
"purposes, including utility and road relocations not funded by the State Department of Transportation — sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%);".
Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective on July 1, 1979.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 8th day of June, 1979.