Contents | Agency Acronyms | Acknowledgements | Introduction | Executive Summary | State of the Air | State of the Water | State of the Land | Issues and Recommendations | Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Appendix D | Report Cover Page | About MCDEP | MCDEP Home Page
In 1987 the Mecklenburg County Environmental Health Commission (now the Environmental Protection Commission) led a group consisting of representatives of the general public, industry and commerce and local staff in determining the state of the County’s environment. That group quickly acknowledged that there were as many concerns and points of view about the project and the environment as there were participants — a challenge in and of itself. Nevertheless, the group was able to agree initially that the 1987 State of the Environment Report had specifically-defined purposes, which were:
(1) to describe Mecklenburg County's current environmental status for the public and the Board of County Commissioners;
(2) to give the County objective measures to evaluate progress toward a clean, healthy environment;
(3) to highlight the major issues facing the County; and
(4) to recommend direction concerning those issues.
A decade later these concepts are even more important as our community and region continue to grow at a steady pace. As a community we can take pride in the what we have accomplished, such as being reclassified as attainment for both ozone and carbon monoxide, reducing the percentage of waste being landfilled, and our efforts toward protecting our drinking water watershed through greenway acquisitions and through corporate donations of land. But on the other hand, we must be cognizant of the fact that as we continue to grow, stresses associated with this growth will place even more stress on our air quality, our surface water quality and the amount of solid waste we generate.
Public awareness and concern for the environment has remained high since 1991 with more than 80% of County residents believing protection of the environment is very important (Table I-1). Even with increased concern for reducing taxes, over 59% of those polled said they would pay higher taxes to protect the environment. This feeling evidently is not unique to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. An editorial in the July 29, 1996 Wall Street Journal reported a survey of registered voters showed that most Americans support environmental protection, but they are not activists; and that most Americans support a greater role for state and local governments in environmental policy (with the exception of cleaning up hazardous waste sites). The Journal further said that American people seem to have realized what most policy makers in Washington have not: Federal bureaucracies are not necessary to advance environmental protection.
Our local elected officials also acknowledge the need to step back and look at what we are doing to our environment locally and regionally in an effort to create a truly livable and sustainable community. In late 1997, eleven months after the idea was first approved by the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, a regional environmental summit took its first steps toward becoming a reality. Forty-three members, including five ex-officio members, will serve on the steering committee. The geographic representation spans 13 counties and two states and represents varied interests throughout the Piedmont, including elected and appointed government officials from eight neighboring counties, environmental organizations, and regional businesses. In addition, the Board of Commissioners on October 15, 1996 unanimously adopted a creek use policy designed to make all 3000 miles of Mecklenburg’s perennial creeks and streams "...suitable for prolonged human contact and recreational opportunities and supportive of varied species of aquatic life."
Scope
Mecklenburg County’s 1997 State of the environment Report is a general information tool with a specifically defined scope. As a report produced primarily for the people of Mecklenburg County, this report focuses on issues affecting public health and the condition of the natural environment within the boundaries of the County. Natural systems, however, do not always conform to arbitrary political boundaries and thus, where relevant, the scope of this report was expanded to include larger geographic areas. This report does not attempt to identify every issue related to the environment; however, it is sufficiently comprehensive to provide an accurate snapshot of the status Mecklenburg County’s air, water and land. In the final chapter the staff of the Mecklenburg County Department of Environmental Protection identifies and discusses several issues in greater detail and provides recommendations to the public and its policy makers.
The 1997 State of the Environment Report is intended to be a document for public education and decision making. It is a valuable reference tool for determining the health or our local environment and providing direction for additional research.
The County
Mecklenburg County is a 528 square-mile area located in the southern Piedmont region of North Carolina and is subdivided into seven incorporated municipalities with Charlotte being the largest by far (Figure I-1) It is home to more than 600,000 people and is the center of a seven-county metropolitan statistical area (MSA) with an aggregate population of more than 1.3 million people (Figure I-2). It is the most populated county in North Carolina. Between 1990 and 1997, the population of the metropolitan region and the County grew at approximately 14% and 19% respectively, a trend likely to continue into the next century based on recent estimates (Figure I-3). Despite this rapid growth, the County’s population density remains relatively low, reflecting the combined effects of increased personal mobility primarily through automobile transportation and the continued availability of open land suitable for development.
From a financial standpoint, the County has a tax base of over $46 billion, is the 2nd largest banking center in the Nation and is corporate headquarters for NationsBank, First Union, Duke Energy, Belk Stores Services, Nucor, National Gypsum, Continental General Tire, Sea-Land Services, Royal Insurance and United Dominion. Furthermore, according to the Charlotte Chamber, there are 188 companies from the Industrial Fortune 500 with offices in Charlotte.
The Charlotte/Mecklenburg metropolitan area has a large river (the Catawba) and three lakes which offer a multi-use opportunity for water, open space, recreation and natural area experiences. The County is divided into two main drainage basins; the Catawba River Basin, which encompasses roughly the western two-thirds of the County and the Rocky River Basin on the East. As a result, nearly all of the streams in the Mecklenburg County originate within its political boundaries.
Because Mecklenburg County is the core county in metropolitan area, it has an advantage of being easily accessible. However, it also has the disadvantage of having the worst traffic congestion, because both local and through traffic are concentrated in the central area of Charlotte. In fiscal year 1995, a City appointed Committee of 100 recommended increasing funding to expand local transit services while recognizing the need to identify and protect future corridors for high-capacity mass transit such as light rail. As mentioned earlier, Mecklenburg County has been reclassified as attainment for both ozone and carbon monoxide. It remains to be seen as to what effect new Federal Standards will have on this designation.
The natural beauty of the environment continues to be one of the County’s natural assets. Unfortunately our rapid growth continues to put more pressure on the environment to serve the multiple demands of an urban environment, including recreational and open-space needs as well as infrastructure needs such as water, sewer, and disposal of solid, medical and hazardous waste. Such needs often appear to be in conflict and as such have positioned themselves as some of the most important long-term issues facing the region. Preserving, maintaining and enhancing the environmental qualities of Mecklenburg County as urbanization continues, is one of the most exciting challenges that we face.
Water
Water in Mecklenburg County is found at the surface in creeks, streams, rivers and lakes, as well as below the surface in pore spaces between fractured rock and larger saturated areas. The County has more than 400 miles of streams with drainage basins greater than one square mile. Two major river systems, the Catawba and the Yadkin, provide surface water drainage. Two-thirds of the County’s creek basins flow west and form part of the Catawba River Basin, while the remaining basins flow east into the Yadkin River Basin (Figure I-4). The entire western border of the County is formed by three lakes that are part of an eleven-lake chain in the 211-mile Catawba River system flowing through North and South Carolina. These surface waters are important for their contribution as a source of drinking water, recreation and waste assimilation and serve as an important aesthetic amenity. Surface waters are affected by many sources of pollution including illegal discharges into creeks and storm drains, accidental spills, storm water runoff and leakage from sewage collection systems. Such pollution sources are classified into two categories: point sources (discharges from a distinct point, such as wastewater treatment plants) and non-point sources (discharges from no distinct point, such as storm water runoff). Surface water basins also provide, through percolation, an important supply of groundwater for wells in areas not served by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utility Department.
Below the surface groundwater is found in the pore spaces of soil and, at a grater depth, in a complex network of fractured bedrock. This groundwater provides drinking water to residential and industrial private wells. The water table (the upper limit of the groundwater) is found at various depths in the County, ranging from less than one foot to depths greater than hundreds of feet. Contaminants introduced at the surface (spills, illegal discharges, etc.) Or directly beneath the surface (underground storage tanks, septic tanks, etc.) Can potentially impact the ground water. The rate at which contamination occurs is governed by a complex system of factors including the type of soil, the nature of the contamination, and geologic formations.
Air
In Mecklenburg County as elsewhere, air quality can vary in scale (a neighborhood, city, county and region) and time (acute versus chronic exposures). Every day nuisance odors, particles from vehicular traffic, toxic chemicals, and emissions from automobile tailpipes and industrial processes are released into the atmosphere. Each of these emission sources can adversely affect the public’s health and the environment. Emissions from surrounding counties and regions can also affect the ambient air in Mecklenburg County, and similarly, emissions originating in Mecklenburg County can affect the air quality of the region.
The quality of air over Mecklenburg County depends upon meteorology, geography and several human-related factors such as economic/industrial activity, population density and transportation. The air masses that move over the County are of different geographic origins but all can influence significantly the general air quality and visibility. Weather conditions can be positive, such as a rain event that cleanses the air of suspended particulates or aerosols; or negative, such as a hot, windless summer day promoting atmospheric chemical reactions and high smog levels. There are also seasonal variations to air pollution. In the summer, sunny, hot days are often conducive to the formation of ground-level ozone (smog). In the winter, temperature inversions (stagnant, trapped air masses) are common and can produce eleveated levels of carbon monoxide near the ground. Air pollution emissions come from many different sources such as automobiles and industry as well as small residential and commercial sources. All emission sources contribute to localized air pollution as well as to the total amount of pollutants loaded into the atmosphere.
Land
Mecklenburg County encompasses more than 350,000 acres of land in the souther Piedmont region of North Carolina and is located at the center of an expanding industrial, commercial, and transportation metropolitan region. Its terrain is moderately hilly with elevations ranging from 520 feet along the Catawba River to a peak elevation of 850 feet near the Northern end of the County.
Soils in the area are the result of weathering and decomposition of the parent bedrock and generally fall into three categories: sandy silt loams; non-shrinking clays; and shrinking or mixed clays. Sandy clay loams are found on ridges and ridge slopes. Sand and gravel soils interbedded with silts and clays are found next to rivers. Soil texture and terrain can influence the ability of pollution introduced at the surface to migrate toward the subsuface.
The physical impacts of increasing population and economic growth in the County and region are obvious as rural land is converted to urban and suburban developments to accomodate additional residential housing development, schools, universities, hospitals and an expansion of existing infrastructures such as roads, utilities and sanitary wastewater collection and treatment (Figure I-5) A less obvious but equally important impact of this growth is the increased generation of wastes from industrial, commercial, institutional and residential activities and the need for their disposal. The waste streams generated by society assume many forms including solid, hazardous and radioactive wastes from medical facilities. The need to dispose of these waste streams is a universal problem as are their potential impacts on public health and the environment. Continuing development and population growth creates the need for increased land disposal capacity and the need for regional approaches to all types of waste disposal.
