The Soil and Water Conservation District is overseen by a five-member board of supervisors; three are chosen in non-partisan elections and two are appointed.
Learn more: What does the Soil and Water Board do?
The board works with individual citizens and the city and county governments to, “protect and enhance the soil and water of New Hanover County.” That includes environmental education, and advising citizens and government officials on best practices for soil and water quality.
Incumbent Frank Christopher Meares said that if elected, his priorities would include getting a bill passed in Raleigh that would prohibit all point-source pollution, like from factories.
“If you dump anything into our waterways, and you are found to have done it, you will have to pay not just the restitution for those that you've harmed. But you will also have to pay for the cleanup, you will have to fix the problem where it has been dumped at,” he said.
Incumbent Evan Folds said that when it comes to corporate polluters, regulatory agencies and elected officials have failed. He would like to see citizens be able to sue corporate polluters on behalf of the Cape Fear River. That’s been done before in Minnesotausing the legal theory of rights of nature, but it hasn’t been tried in the Wilmington area.
“Name one thing that our city and county has done about our water quality problems. In five years…not one thing. They've passed a resolution and said, ‘Please don't,” he said.
Lance Capps is the third candidate, and the only non-incumbent. He’s a special education teacher in Pender County, but lives in New Hanover County. His campaign motto is, “kick stupidity in the face.”
“The main purpose of our motto of kicking stupidity in the face is we need to approach things with a common sense manner…we have to make sure that not only are we serving the people that we're also serving the environment, making sure everything's done in the correct way,” he said.
He said his experience as an educator qualifies him for the job, as he has had to become a continuous learner.
All the candidates talked about the importance of balancing development with environmental concerns. Meares said that responsible development takes hydrology into account–primarily, making sure the soil in an area will drain properly to prevent flooding.
“Yes, we do need affordable houses…But we need to be doing it in a way that keeps the county and its public safe,” he said.
A big focus of the board is flooding mitigation. Folds said the current hydrology policy in New Hanover County of moving water from gutter to river isn’t sustainable; better quality soil can retain more water and decrease flooding, he said.
As the northern part of the county is developed, he said there needs to be a different plan for flooding mitigation there.
“It's basically a wetland… bottom line is, you know, retention pond type developments that we're used to doing around here don't work for that type of soil,” he said. “So we're going to drown down here, when we develop the northern part of the county the same way we have the rest of New Hanover County, and it's a real issue.”
The candidates also talked about the importance of the educational aspect of their board. Capps said that means including younger generations in the conversation.
“They are the biggest speakers when it comes to protecting the environment,” he said.
Voters will be able to choose two of these three candidates on their ballots this election.
