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Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop joined Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton and Southern Coalition for Social Justice Attorney James Huey to host a discussion about how to protect waterways from a policy standpoint this week.

Moderated by North Carolina Conservation Network’s Affiliate Capacity Manager Kate Fulbright,

“Designing Communities that Protect Our Waters,” the panel discussion was held at the SCSJ offices in Durham and drew a crowd of stakeholders in area waterways.

“This was the first event of its kind, that we’ve done, where we’ve talked specifically about regulatory policy and land-use planning policy and what specifically needs to be done to protect waterways in the context of state preemption and other challenges,” Samantha said.

The panelists each gave a short presentation on their work: Emily Sutton on stormwater planning and its opportunities in the Haw; Samantha on sediment pollution and strategies to prevent it; and James Huey on the basics of how Unified Development Ordinances and conditional rezonings work.

“We shared about how land use practices impact our resiliency, we talked about impacts in the context of climate resiliency, drought and flooding, land-use changes and how they impact water quality,” Samantha said.

Afterward, the three were asked a series of questions allowing a deeper dive into these issues, then the floor was opened for a 20-minute Q&A.

“There were a lot of great questions,” Samantha said. “People in the room really knew what they were talking about. There was a lot of energy, and it was clear a lot of people care deeply. Many of them were longtime residents who’ve seen in the changes in Durham over the last 30 years, and they are just heartbroken by what they’re seeing.”

The panel discussion was a precursor to the Unified Development Ordinance Gold Standard which Waterkeepers Carolina, the consortium of Riverkeeper organizations across the state, and SCSJ will launch this year.

Samantha said they’ll be planning similar events in the future.

“It was a good event, and it was a very good conversation,” she said. “We need to do more of those.”

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