Responses to North Carolina water supply protection policies as analog to potential climate change policies

Scientists, environmentalists and politicians identify global climate change as a threat of unprecedented magnitude in human experience. Human activities such as fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and other land use changes have resulted in increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to alterations in the global climate system. Actions to mitigate or adapt to climate change occur not at the global scale, but at the scale of individuals, households, businesses and institutions. Place-based studies of responses to previous environmental threats provide necessary insights into local societal response to changing environments. This research specifically examines responses to threats to the quality and quantity of water supplies in North Carolina as an analog to potential climate change policy.;North Carolina has a long history of water quality protection. The North Carolina Water Supply Watershed Protection Act (WSWPA) enacted in 1989, established statewide minimum standards for water supply watersheds. Qualitative analysis of the written responses made during the public comment period provides a rich narrative of stakeholder response to the proposed regulations of the WSWPA. Few argued against clean water but responses to and support for the actual mechanism to achieve clean water were uneven among stakeholders and across the state. Written responses from citizens and environmental groups were overwhelmingly supportive of proposed regulations while business and industry and county and municipal governments were more strongly opposed to the regulations. Those who faced the brunt of the regulations were vocal against these regulations.;Future environmental legislation can benefit from the experience with the North Carolina WSWPA including the need for increased stakeholder involvement in regulatory development, the need for place-based research to reveal local differences in regulation responses across the state and among different stakeholder groups.