The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allocated nearly $410 million to the North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality to fund water infrastructure resilience projects in the state.
North Carolina is struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Helene, which devastated roads, buildings, and water infrastructure when it tore through the state in September 2024, with more than $100 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding currently in limbo due to administrative changes made at the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security in 2025, its parent agency, the Washington Post reports.
The funds are part of the 2025 supplemental appropriation for damage mitigation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and from wildfires in Hawaii, which was signed into law in December 2024. The North Carolina funding will be administered under the state revolving fund to help drinking water systems better withstand natural disasters, according to EPA.
“When a natural disaster strikes, local communities need a public water system they can count on,” said EPA Regional Administrator Kevin McOmber in a statement. “These funds will help local governments create resilient systems that can better withstand floods, fires and other weather events so the water keeps flowing.”
Burnsville, N.C., Mayor Russell Fox says his town still depends on a temporary water pumping system until the primary intake system can be rebuilt. “The need for funding is always an issue but even more so, now,” he said.
Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, told ENR that it’s fairly typical for supplemental funding to go to agencies with oversight over particular types of infrastructure projects.
What’s not typical is that FEMA funding for resilience and hazard mitigation has “basically been stopped in its tracks,” he said. But he added, “It’s good to see some of the other agencies recognizing that when you invest in resilience, you’re investing” in the ability to withstand future extreme weather events and wildfires.
