The NC budget finally passed, but there isn't much worth celebrating.

July 2, 2026 - Emily Sutton, Haw Riverkeeper and Executive Director

NC’s budget finally passed this week, but there isn't much worth celebrating. 

There is relief in finally having a budget after all these months of waiting. But unfortunately, we have no relief on our issues. The Water Safety Act made it into the final version, and on paper that sounds like a win. In reality, almost everything with teeth was stripped out along the way, and what is left is mostly a set of studies, not real regulatory action. 

NCDEQ is underfunded again, and the money that was set aside goes to the NC Policy Collaboratory for research instead of to the agency actually doing regulatory enforcement. We already have enough research to know the science. PFAS and 1,4-dioxane are dangerous to the health of our communities, and we know where the contamination is coming from. What we need now is regulatory enforcement that holds polluters accountable.

The Bernard Allen Emergency Drinking Water Fund received a little more money, but nowhere near the increase our communities actually need. The new funding only covers households affected by PFAS contamination from firefighting foam near firehouses, which leaves out a lot of North Carolinians dealing with PFAS and 1,4-dioxane contamination from industrial sources across our watershed.

We are also concerned about the Office of Environmental Education, which has been moved out of the Department of Environmental Quality and placed under the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. This is a significant loss. Environmental education has always been strongest when it is connected to the agency actually protecting our air, land, and water, and this move risks pulling that program away from the mission it was built to serve. As we dig through the rest of this budget, we will keep you posted on what it means for the fights we are in right now.