By the numbers: NCDEQ invests in WNC following Helene
NCDEQ has played a key role in both the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the longterm recovery.
File photo
In 2025, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality supported communities recovering from Hurricane Helene, took actions to address PFAS contamination and continued to protect the state’s natural resources for the health and prosperity of all North Carolinians, according to a lengthy DEQ press release.
The monumental task of helping communities recover from Helene, while rebuilding in a way that makes them more resilient to future storms, played a central role in the department’s actions last year.
DEQ also completed dozens more projects, tests, studies, grants, education programs and more in 2025 that protected North Carolinians’ health and welfare.
The numbers
In addition to the highlights below, DEQ focused during the past 18 months on helping North Carolinians recover from Helene through the following measures:
• Awarded $365 million in grants for water infrastructure repairs and resiliency.
• Mapped 4,000 landslides, helping North Carolinians stay safe from future slides.
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• Inspected 400 dams.
• Awarded $12 million to clean up debris in streams and rivers.
• Designated 177 debris collection sites.
• In 2025, DEQ received the first federal funding through EPA to improve flood resiliency to drinking water, wastewater and septic systems affected by Hurricane Helene. The Division of Water Infrastructure received $685 million in supplemental funds and has completed two funding rounds using these funds to date.
• The Dam Safety Program established the North Carolina Dam Safety Grant Fund, making $10 million in state funding available to dam owners for the rehabilitation and/or removal of Hurricane Helene-damaged high-hazard dams.
• In August, EPA awarded DEQ a $61 million grant for Hurricane Helene State Program Support for Hazardous Waste Management. The grant will run through Sept. 30, 2030, and will assist North Carolina with emergency response and recovery from Hurricane Helene. It also will fund preparations for emergency recovery as related to DEQ’s hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste, recycling and materials management, emergency response programs and pesticide management.
• DEQ created the Western NC Recovery Grants Program that provides free, customized grant writing support to local governments and partner nonprofits in Western North Carolina impacted by Hurricane Helene. The program objective is to help impacted communities secure federal and state funding for long-term recovery projects.
• NC Geological Survey staff mapped more than 2,600 landslides resulting from Hurricane Helene and responded to more than 400 landslides.
• The NC General Assembly allocated emergency disaster recovery funding to DEQ’s Underground Storage Tank Section (UST) to assist owners and operators with testing and repairing tanks storing petroleum and hazardous substances that were damaged by Hurricane Helene. Loans are interest-free and mature upon the earlier of receiving federal disaster relief or other funding, or by June 30, 2030. As of November, DEQ had received 11 loan agreements for more than $1.2 million.
• DEQ received an EPA grant (with state matching funds) totaling more than $15.8 million to assess and cleanup spills of petroleum from UST damage by Hurricane Helene. The grant will run through March 31, 2030, and can be extended an additional two years. The UST section has identified more than 15 sites that may be eligible for funding. Assessment or corrective action is underway at nine facilities. Evaluation of additional sites is ongoing.
• The Division’s Solid Waste Section approved 177 sites for temporary management of debris caused by Hurricane Helene. The section also worked with regional officials and residents to manage the debris.
• In the aftermath of Helene, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources staff conducted more than 400 dam safety inspections.
• The State Energy Office launched a $5 million Clean Energy Microgrid Initiative to deploy small solar-powered microgrid systems in areas that lost power due to Hurricane Helene. As of December, five microgrid sites had been selected.
• DEQ received the first federal funding for onsite decentralized wastewater to support Hurricane Helene recovery in the Western NC region. The $22.5 million EPA award is currently open for applications through the Division of Water Infrastructure until March 2, 2026, and funds replacement and repair of septic systems in a 39-county region of WNC.
• DEQ awarded a $10 million grant to MountainTrue, an Asheville-based nonprofit, to hire 80 staff members to clean up debris from 125 miles of streams over the next 18 months. Funding from DEQ has allowed the organization to employ 79 workers, who remove an average of 10,000 pounds of debris from Western NC waterways daily.
Investing in communities and building resiliency
• In 2025, the State Water Infrastructure Authority awarded more than $877 million in loans and grants to update and harden drinking water, wastewater and septic systems, limit chemical pollution (PFAS), replace lead pipes and assist towns damaged by Hurricane Helene while improving resiliency for future storms.
• In 2025, the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint program awarded $25.2 million to projects in 16 counties to build more resilient communities and protect lives, property and livelihoods across North Carolina.
• The program, through partnerships with agencies such as the NC Land and Water Fund, NC Emergency Management and the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, funded more than 73 projects valued at more than $78 million in total. The total investment from the Blueprint program for these initiatives amounted to over $34.4 million, demonstrating a highly efficient use of state resources where program dollars are working twice as hard through leveraged funding.
• In 2025, the Division of Mitigation Services, initiated 14 new mitigation projects that will permanently protect approximately 97 acres of wetlands along with nearly 20 miles of stream and 91 acres of riparian buffer. These projects represent an investment of approximately $59 million to restore and protect natural resources in North Carolina. DMS currently manages 206 active and ongoing mitigation projects.
• The State Energy Office’s Weatherization Assistance Program completed work in 1,380 households, including repairing or replacing 543 heating units and weatherizing 838 homes.
• The $208 million Energy Saver North Carolina program Homeowners Managing Efficiency Savings and Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates programs launched Jan. 16, 2025.
• The Utility Savings Initiative saved $159 million in avoided utility costs in fiscal 2024–2025 and a cumulative $2.26 billion in avoided costs since fiscal 2002–03 by using efficiency improvements across state facilities.
• The Division of Air Quality awarded $1.91 million for new public electric vehicle chargers across North Carolina, filling gaps in the state’s charging network along highways and in rural communities. The projects will prevent more than 657 tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and will avoid 125 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions and 1,191 pounds of volatile organic compound emissions.
• DAQ awarded $1.14 million in grants for clean vehicle projects, including more than $270,000 for new all-electric vehicles. These awards are projected to eliminate 3,483 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, 57 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions and 7,700 pounds of fine particle emissions.
• The Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service received $26 million in EPA funding in October for grants to local communities in western North Carolina to improve recycling operations damaged by Hurricane Helene and to conduct recycling and waste management workshops for disaster preparedness.
• DEACS awarded $1.17 million (plus $1.11 million in matching funds) in recycling grant funding to 19 businesses and 15 local governments for projects that are expected to create 31 jobs and divert 25,000 tons of material from landfills annually.
• The Division of Water Resources awarded more than $2.6 million in grants to support stream restoration, water-based recreation and water management projects across North Carolina. The total includes nearly $2.3 million awarded through two different grant cycles of the Water Resources Development Grant program state and local projects fund, and $350,880 to support two stream restoration projects on agricultural lands through a cost-sharing program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
• DWR awarded more than $5.8 million in grants in funding from the Flood Resiliency Blueprint to support projects that provide flood reduction or flood resiliency benefits across the following six river basins across North Carolina: Cape Fear, French Broad, Lumber, Neuse, Tar Pamlico znd White Oak. The grants were awarded to 10 local governments through a one-time appropriation of flood resiliency funding received through the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint administered through the Water Resources Development Grant program state and local projects program.
• The Blueprint Tool, posted in April, serves as a resource for communities, local governments and partners by providing accurate, data-driven flood- risk and vulnerability assessments. Users can explore, develop and define effective flood-resilience actions and evaluate and prioritize the most effective solutions.
• The State Resilience Office (SRO) joined DEQ in July 2025 to continue its mission to support resilience-building statewide. The SRO, previously at the NC Department of Public Safety, supports local governments and their partners to plan for and invest in resilience initiatives. The SRO also manages the NC Resilience Exchange, an online toolbox of resilience resources, and staffs the Interagency Resilience Team, a partnership of state agencies working to push resilience efforts forward across state government.
• SRO, in partnership with the State Climate Office, kicked off its second Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort Program. This year, nine local governments from the coast to the mountains are participating in the program, with the goal of developing a local heat action plan. Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related impact, and local governments across the state are taking action.
To see a longer list of accomplishments, visit the DEQ website.
