CARY, NC – Cary officials hope to prove that size really does matter—especially when it comes to environmental protection—when they show and tell about new buffer requirements at a creek-side news conference later today. Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Bill Holman will join the Cary Town Council and special guests on the banks of White Oak Creek to learn about the Town’s new ordinance requiring 100-foot streamside buffers to help remove nutrients from stormwater entering lakes, ponds and other bodies of water. The event will be held today at 1:30 PM at Cary’s soon-to-be opened White Oak Park, which includes a portion of White Oak Creek, which flows to Jordan Lake.

Under new State stormwater management rules, more than a dozen jurisdictions in the Neuse River Basin—from Orange County to Craven County--must adopt laws requiring a minimum 50-foot buffer between development and certain streams, creeks, ponds, and lakes. Each jurisdiction—including Cary--is to submit draft rules to DENR by September 9^th for State review and likely local adoption by March 2001.

But in August, Cary’s Town leaders decided to give water quality and water supply twice the protection by requiring 100-foot buffers instead of the minimum 50-foot. In addition, Cary put its rules into effect immediately and made them town-wide, not just for development in the Neuse Basin.

"Leading the state in adopting these strict environmental rules is another in a long list of initiatives we have in place that put our natural resources first," said Town Manager Bill Coleman. Coleman noted that Cary is also the first jurisdiction in NC to launch a water reuse program and the only jurisdiction in the Triangle to commit more than $12 million this year for the preservation and acquisition of open space.

Cary’s new initiative complements recent State buffer requirements in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins. State officials have begun developing buffer plans for the Cape Fear basin and Jordan Lake.

###