Environmental Resilience

Cary needs to be doing more to be environmentally resilient.

Stormwater: We have had 4 storms in the last year that would normally only occur every 500 years. Cary has historically done a great job with infrastructure planning and yet. This puts our stormwater system under a great deal of strain.

Trees: A recent study found that our tree canopy has been declining precipitously. Trees are vitally important to our town. They filter our air and water, remove greenhouse gasses, keep us cool, protect us from flooding and soil erosion, provide shelter for wildlife, and promote both our mental and physical well being.

Solid waste: Cary currently has no plan for waste disposal after 2040 – when the South Wake Landfill is scheduled to be full and closed. In 2019 a study found that 27.4% of Cary’s single-family residential waste was food waste that does not need to end up in our landfill.

Carbon footprint: Cary needs to do more to help our community move towards renewable energy sources. I love Cary and think that our current council has done many things right. But environmental stewardship is too often framed in terms of “protection” or “preservation.” We need a more active approach to meet the challenge of Cary’s growth, the demands of global climate change, and the wealth of new research about how important our local environment is to our health and the health of our children. 

Things that could be done immediately with a more progressive majority on Cary’s Town Council:

Do more to encourage native plants and protect champion trees. 

We need more native plantings in current and future developments. In West Cary, we have far too many “moon scapes”, where new neighborhoods are clearcut and then replaced with young, often non-native plants. Native plants require less upkeep, which means less water usage, fewer pesticides, and more habitats for pollinators and wildlife. Not only are these all good for our environment, they mean the town has to spend less money and time on caretaking when we choose native plants. We should adjust our planting requests to more highly value native species. 

Do more to protect our water source at Jordan Lake. 

All Cary water comes from Jordan Lake. Cm. Lori Bush worked with the Wake County Commissioners and The Triangle Land Conservancy to buy land upstream from Jordan Lake to help protect our water source. The first plot of this plan was bought for $3.25 million, but Cary was only willing to contribute $250,000 to this effort. I think protecting our drinking water should be a higher priority for the Cary Town Council.

Keep trash out of our landfills. 

We need to expand our desperately needed composting program! Right now the only composting station is in downtown Cary, which is a 20 minute drive for most residents of District D. Cary led the charge in the 1990s as an early municipal adopter of curbside recycling collection. We can be leaders in composting too! I strongly support investment in a door-to-door pick up for composting.

We also need to be more proactive about our recycling efforts. A change in Cary’s recycling provider came with a change in the rules for what can be recycled, and many residents remain confused. This can be disastrous because even mild contamination causes an entire truck of recycling to be diverted to our already congested landfill. We need to improve our community education around recycling so that the public understands that labels on packaging do not always correspond with local recycling capabilities. 

In my many discussions with citizens of District D, I have seen the pride that we all take in our town and the efforts we make to keep it green. Getting recycling right is difficult, but I believe that we can leverage our energy, enthusiasm, and creativity to improve our success rate.

For instance, Cary can be proactive about “precycling” by working with community and multi-faith groups that rent or loan supplies like silverware, plates, cups, and linens for events so that we can prevent the creation of this kind of trash. I am so grateful to all the volunteers at so many faith and other local organizations that are tackling these challenges!

Policies for the future:

Lead an effort to reimagine our stormwater and wastewater systems for a volatile future. 

Our stormwater systems need to be updated because Cary has had 4 extreme (500 year, according to our current classification system) storms in the last year. This is an effort that Cm. Carissa Johnson has been tackling, but there is not a majority on the current council in favor of this effort, despite the clear evidence that we will continue to see increased flooding because of global climate trends. 

The increasing development at Jordan Lake is only one of the many pollution and growth challenges that threatens our drinking water and the health of both Cary residents and our local environment. Responsible city governments must look forward and anticipate these issues.

Reimagine our building requirements and infrastructure. 

Cary has already started adjusting the requirements for new buildings, but we need to do more. Things like encouraging native plants, solar installations, renewable energy, permeable or carbon-capturing concrete, and many other technologies on the horizon are exciting. Cary needs council-members who are ready to research and engage with new technologies and guidelines. This is especially true when these issues are often very complex. Electric cars are an exciting move forward, but they will only make an incremental difference overall if the electricity we are using comes from non-renewable sources and batteries require minerals that are mined in harmful ways. I have even heard complaints from developers that inflexibility in our building regulations have sometimes prevented them from making changes that would benefit the community. 

Elect representatives at the state level who care about our environment. 

This is more related to my former volunteer work with the Democratic Party, but our state government stymies Cary’s efforts to be more environmentally sustainable in many ways. In the September 28, 2023 Cary Town Council Meeting, the council had to address changing the ways we penalize developers who do not abide by local regulations on stormwater management because of a North Carolina State Bill that removes our power to charge the fines and retain money for improvements in the way we have been doing them for decades. 

Guiding principles for the environment:

Think ahead.

The climate is changing our world and impacting our health. We must be willing to recognize that responsible planning for the future means investing money and time now. In order to be good stewards of both our land and our finances, we must plan ahead. 

Think about transportation.

Reducing car miles traveled helps keep our air cleaner and healthier. To do this we need good bus solutions, connected greenways, and protected bike lanes so that it is easy for Cary residents to get around without cars. 

Think about everyone.

There are established equity issues in the way environmental and beautification efforts are usually prioritized in towns. Robust building codes can protect those with the fewest resources from environmental impacts like pollution, heat islands, and flooding, but can also make housing more expensive. Amenities that help connect the community—like greenways, sidewalks, protected bike lanes, abundant trees, parks, and community centers—are prevalent in affluent areas. An unequal distribution of infrastructure isolates affordable housing developments and makes it harder to integrate multiple levels of price and density in a single community. As we plan for the future we must keep these equity issues in mind so that all of our residents may benefit.