BRIC Grants
Dozens of North Carolina communities are in limbo after FEMA canceled more than $200 million worth of grants for flood-mitigation projects earlier this year in the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant program, also known as BRIC. For Forest City in Rutherford County, the now defunct grant program was meant to be a safety net. Flooding along the Second Broad River exposed the area’s vulnerability to heavy rainfall five years ago, when rising water smashed debris into a main line and cut off running water to Forest City and the nearby towns of Ellenboro and Bostic.
Erosion along the river left Forest City’s sewer system and raw water intake at risk of flood damage, but the town didn’t have the money to fix it. Federal emergency management officials told town officials that they would be a good fit for a new grant program aimed at pre-disaster mitigation.
Through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant program, FEMA awarded Forest City $2.6 million for improvements to the town’s water and sewer systems. The project was well into the planning and design process when the federal government revoked the grant.
FEMA announced the end of the BRIC program and canceled all applications from fiscal years 2020 through 2023 on April 4, calling the program created during President Donald Trump’s first term “wasteful and ineffective” in press releases.
In total, 72 North Carolina communities with active BRIC-funded projects worth about $225 million were affected.
Town officials across the state told Carolina Public Press that the mitigation projects they view as essential to keeping their communities safe are now caught in a federal political battle in Washington. “I don’t consider water and sewer projects to be political or woke,” Town Manager Janet Mason said.
Neither did a bipartisan group of 80 members of Congress, which released a letter addressed to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson shortly after the grant program’s termination, urging them to reverse the decision.
“BRIC funds are spurring communities across the country to strengthen their resilience to extreme weather, and forgoing these critical investments will only make it harder and more expensive for communities to recover from the next storm,” the letter read.
Instead, the legislators suggested that FEMA and Congress work together to improve the grant program’s application review and funding distribution processes.
Sen. Thom Tillis and Rep. Chuck Edwards, both North Carolina Republicans, helped craft the letter. Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat representing the northeastern part of the state, and Rep. Alma Adams, a Democrat representing Charlotte, were the other two members of North Carolina’s Congressional delegation to add their signatures.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to CPP’s request for a comment on pushback from lawmakers and local governments over the ending of the BRIC program.
Infrastructure Funding
Local, state, and federal leaders met in Wilmington on Wednesday to discuss the reauthorization of a key federal transportation bill impacting infrastructure, from local roads to national railways. U.S. Congressman David Rouzer, North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins, Head of Government Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Rodney Davis, and Coastal Beverage Company President Tee Nunnelee participated in a press conference at the Coastal Beverage Company in Wilmington to discuss a multi-year authorization that sets national transportation policy and funding levels, through a combination of dedicated funding and grants.
The legislation impacts everything from highway construction to public transit, freight rail, and port infrastructure. The main goal is to provide states and local governments with long-term financial certainty so they can plan and execute major projects.
“Those who live around the Wilmington area or in Pender County and certainly in Brunswick County, know how much growth this area has seen, and quite honestly, our roads and bridges were behind the eight-ball,” Rouzer said.
On a local level, NCDOT Secretary Hopkins didn’t point to specific projects this bill would help fund, but referenced the Hampstead Bypass project as an example of the need for long-term federal funding. The $502 million Hampstead Bypass project broke ground in March 2022 to address significant traffic congestion along U.S. Highway 17, which sees over 40,000 vehicles a day. The project was recently awarded a $182 million federal grant for the second phase of construction.
“That project (Hampstead Bypass) will probably not be open until around 2030, we needed it probably in 2020 if not before,” Hopkins said. “We want to deliver those projects that the communities want, the communities need, and that they will use, in a more timely manner.”
Rouzer named the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement as a project hindered by funding delays. He expressed apprehension over the project’s increasing cost; a 135-foot fixed span version of the project’s initial total costs were around $485 million and have since risen close to $1.1 billion.
“It’s going to require an innovative approach to address that kind of funding gap,” Rouzer explained. “But I can assure you that at the federal, state and local level, we’re all working to achieve that.”
The press conference followed a roundtable discussion on the bill featuring representatives from the NCDOT, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and local businesses. Nunnelee expressed the new reauthorization bill should promote efficiency and adequate funding, particularly concerning highways and roads.
Wildlife Crossings
A new report, “US 64 Roadkill Monitoring Survey Year One Interim Report,” released Aug. 13 by the nonprofit Wildlands Network, counted more than 5,000 vertebrates representing 144 species, as well as 1,050 snakes, 1,186 turtles, and 1,529 frogs dead alongside the highway or flattened on the pavement. The first year of the two-year study covered Aug. 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025.
“It’s pretty remarkable carnage, and we’re sure that’s an underestimate, because some things get removed by vultures,” Ron Sutherland, the conservation group’s chief scientist, told Coastal Review.
The updated information will be valuable to planning for proposed wildlife crossings under sections of U.S. Highway 64 and nearby U.S. 264, a need highlighted over the years by numerous vehicle strikes of critically endangered red wolves. Huge bear and deer that run into the road are also increasing hazards to human life, especially at night.
“Research is an important step in the construction of wildlife crossing structures,” the report states. “In order to be cost-effective, it is imperative to know where hotspots of wildlife road-crossing activity occur so the sites can be chosen that are most effective both in mitigating wildlife road collisions and maintaining habitat connectivity.”
The study route was chosen to inform planning efforts by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Fish and Wildlife, and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to develop proposals for wildlife crossings and fencing installations on U.S. 64, the report stated, “with the immediate goal” of reducing wolf strikes.
Mining Permit:
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality ruled to deny the mining permit to Horizon 30 after the company was for months told by DEQ and its Division of Energy, Land and Mineral Resources that it was in violation of the Mining Act of 1971 for operation of a mine without a valid permit. In its application, Horizon 30 proposed to operate on nearly 51 acres, with mining construction aggregated at a proposed depth of 550 feet. The actual area of the mine excavation would have covered approximately 23 acres, according to the state. The ruling comes after the DEQ issued a preliminary injunction Aug. 11 to Horizon 30 to stop the company from engaging in illegal mining without a permit. At that hearing, Superior Court Judge Ted McEntire stated that he would grant the preliminary injunction to prohibit further mining activities unless and until a proper permit was granted. According to the Mitchell County Board of Commissioners' Facebook page, McEntire told Horizon 30’s attorney, “You’ve got to stop. Stop means stop.”