(The Center Square) – Hurricane Helene has put a new focus on the health of streams in North Carolina and making sure they are clear of debris such as fallen trees and trash.

When heavy storms hit, clogged streams can cause flooding to farmland, damage to bridges and homes and also make recreation, such as canoeing more difficult.

“A lot our streams across North Carolina typically have not had a typical maintenance type program,” Bryan Evans, executive director of the North Carolina Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, told The Center Square.

Fixing the problem will require millions of dollars in federal and state tax dollars, Evans said.

The issue of stream clearing in North Carolina also came to the forefront after hurricanes Florence and Matthew, and the Legislature responded in 2022 with $36 million in funding for the Streamflow Rehabilitation Assistance Program also known as STRAP.

“It is set up to be a maintenance program, a proactive program to keep our streams functioning the way they should, prior to a storm,” Evans said.

When the STRAP program was first funded, soil and water districts throughout the state estimated that they needed $320 million for debris removal and other work.

The Legislature approved a second round of funding last year for $19.3 million and by then the cost of the work needed to be done dropped to around $200 million.

Then, last September, came Helene. The scope of the damage was so large that federal agencies and programs are still in charge of clearing and repairing it.

A federal program, the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, is in charge of stabilizing streams and removing debris, Evans said.

“In these areas where a blockage has happened, a lot of times the water will go around and it starts degrading the streambed and destabilizing the stream banks,” Evans said. “EWP also helps assist with that – they go back and stabilize those banks, especially where there are structure that are threatened because the streambeds are creeping in on them.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are also involved in the Helene recovery effort.

“FEMA comes in and they do some debris removal that is considered an imminent threat,” Evans said.

The agencies are still performing an assessment of the damage in North Carolina. Only after that assessment is complete will the EWP fully kick in.

“Helene has affected so many places at such a level that we’ve not seen before,” said Evans.

State officials are working closely with federal agencies on the recovery. State efforts will focus on areas of state that are that outside of the federal efforts, said Evans.

“Once EWP completes what it can do within its scope, we will look at the STRAP program to pick up any additional things,” Evans said. “It’s all about working on streams to try to keep them healthy, to try keep them functioning.”

(The Center Square) – DOGE is in Washington, DAVE is in Raleigh.

Mimicking the federal government, a proposal passing the North Carolina Senate with a single Democrat in favor would establish the Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency within the office of state auditor. Republican Dave Boliek is in his first term leading the office charged with auditing “more than $100 billion in state assets and liabilities each year, bringing transparency to local, state, and federal government,” its website mission statement says.

The DAVE Act, known also as Senate Bill 474, says it would enact the division “directing each state agency to report to the division on its use of public monies and the status of its vacant positions, and directing the division to assess the continued need of each state agency and the vacant positions within each agency.”

Use of artificial intelligence, among other tools, is granted in the proposal.

Author of the bill, Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger of Rockingham County, said in a release, “Funds sent to state agencies come out of the pockets of North Carolinians. Requiring a review of agency operations and staffing is the right thing to do to ensure that those tax dollars are not wasted.”

If made law, it would be effective immediately. The sunset on the act is Dec. 31, 2028, concurrent with the end of Boliek’s term in office.

Republican Sen. Steve Jarvis of Davidson County said the “deep dive” will tell what works and what doesn’t in state agencies.

Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, was the lone member of his party in support. No Republicans were in opposition in the 29-17 passage.

Boliek’s office, in a summary report this week, said it has issued 21 audits thus far and launched the Hurricane Helene Recovery Dashboard. It has also spent time engaging with communities across the state, the report said.

The audits thus far have confirmed a turnaround for the embattled state Department of Transportation; $45 million in financial reporting errors at North Carolina Central University; $8.5 million in questioned costs for federal grants; and analysis of NCInnovation recommending it lower operational risk with private fundraising and improve transparency and communication to its Board of Directors.