In mid-September, Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight dropped historic levels of rainfall on parts of Southeastern North Carolina.
According to the National Weather Service, 12 to 20 inches of rain fell over two days, causing severe flash flooding. The rain’s impact was felt acutely in Brunswick County where the flooding made several roads and bridges around Southport, Bolivia and Boiling Spring Lakes impassible.
In the aftermath of the damage, Brunswick County leaders evaluated implementing a temporary moratorium on new residential development before pivoting to examine the county’s stormwater services and consider other steps that could be taken to reduce the impacts of future flooding.
County staff are currently in the “information gathering stage” on these efforts, according to Brunswick County communications director Meagan Kascsak. Staff presented initial findings to the board of commissioners last month.
The potential changes include updates to the county’s stormwater manual and ordinances related to development requirements. Adjustments to the requirements could impact the designs of future residential and commercial developments in the growing county.
Staff recommended, for example, increasing the required riparian buffer width from 30 feet to 50 feet, adjusting stormwater control requirements to accommodate up to a 100-year flood and maintaining these requirements through regular inspections and other means.
Although efforts were already ongoing to update the county’s stormwater manual and development-related ordinances, the flooding impacts from the potential tropical cyclone brought stormwater concerns to the forefront, Kascsak wrote in an email to the Business Journal.
Brunswick County is also considering starting a stormwater utility, a legal entity that can provide a range of stormwater management activities from administrative functions to planning, engineering, regulation and capital improvements.
Seven of North Carolina’s 100 counties operate stormwater utilities, according to Brunswick County staff, including New Hanover County. Stormwater utilities are funded through user fees with property owners with lots of impervious surfaces typically paying higher fees than those with stormwater control measures in place.
The board directed staff to continue researching the proposed updates and the establishment of a stormwater utility. County staff and leaders said while working through the research process, maintenance of stormwater drains and ditches remains a top priority.
“It just seems like the maintenance issue seems to be the No. 1 goal here,” commissioners chairman Randy Thompson said at the board’s Nov. 18 meeting.
Any adjustments to the county’s current stormwater ordinance and manual, Kascsak said, would require approval from the board of commissioners, and establishing a stormwater utility would require public hearings to be held.
