The federal court has ordered FEMA to reinstate $200 million in climate resiliency grants to North Carolina.
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grant program funds infrastructure projects for communities vulnerable to natural disasters.
“Our towns spent years doing everything FEMA asked them to do to qualify for this funding, and they were in the middle of building real protections against storms when FEMA suddenly broke its word,” wrote Attorney General Jeff Jackson in a press release. “Keeping water systems working and keeping homes out of floodwater isn’t politics – it’s basic safety. This ruling puts the money back where it was promised so these communities can be ready for the next storm.”
In April, FEMA abruptly canceled the program, leaving many projects in North Carolina — including sewer upgrades, river bank maintenance and wastewater projects — to an uncertain fate. In response, North Carolina, along with 19 other states, sued the agency in July.
This week, the court sided with the states and ruled that the termination of the BRIC program is “unlawful.” The reprogramming or withholding of funds already committed to projects also violates the law, it said.
“This is a case about unlawful Executive encroachment on the prerogative of Congress to appropriate funds for a specific and compelling purpose, and no more than that,” the summary judgement stated.
In North Carolina, some of the reinstated grants include:
- A $22.5 million grant to relocate a sewage station out of the floodplain in Salisbury
- A $5.9 million riverbank restoration in Gastonia
- A $5.4 million grant for flood protection in Hickory
- A $7.6 million Resilient Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure project in Forest City
- A $1.1 million sewer system relocation in Leland
- A $200,000 watershed vulnerability assessment in Buncombe County
See a full list of the projects.
This isn’t the only lawsuit that Jackson has filed against FEMA. In November, North Carolina joined 11 other states in a lawsuit alleging that the agencies are withholding $17.5 million in emergency preparedness grants over “unlawful terms.”
The NC Department of Justice also has an open lawsuit with the Environmental Protection Agency over $150 million in contested solar energy money.
