North Carolina HB 345: Rights of Nature/Certain River Basins.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 1
HOUSE BILL 345

Short Title: Rights of Nature/Certain River Basins. (Public)
Sponsors: Representatives Harrison, Morey, Cervania, and K. Brown (Primary Sponsors).
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to: Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
March 11, 2025
*H345-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO RECOGNIZE AND PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE DAN AND HAW RIVER 2
ECOSYSTEMS AND TO RECOGNIZE AND PROTECT THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE 3
OF NORTH CAROLINA TO A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM FOR THOSE RIVERS. 4
Whereas, from time immemorial, rivers and streams of North Carolina, including the 5
Haw and Dan Rivers, have supported abundant life. American Indians have inhabited these lands, 6
living in harmony with Nature, for over a thousand years; and 7
Whereas, by 1710, the impacts of colonization forced the Saura tribe to abandon its 8
last known settlement along the Dan River, but other tribes along the Haw and Dan Rivers, such 9
as the Saponi, remained and continue to live in the region; and 10
Whereas, today, American Indians of the Piedmont region are reconnecting with their 11
ancestral homeland and culture; and guiding growing efforts to better conserve and protect the 12
rivers and river lands and the life they support; and 13
Whereas, such efforts must be intensified, because the health, safety, and welfare of 14
North Carolinians is, and always has been, inseparable from the health of the rivers and river 15
lands, because many of the State's cities, towns, and industries owe their very existence to the 16
rivers, which served as the historic providers of the power to run mills and the blue highways for 17
transporting people and goods. In modern times, the rivers and the nature around them continue 18
to serve as support systems for human endeavors by supplying drinking water, enabling the 19
region's farmers to grow food, providing opportunities for recreation and rejuvenation to 20
residents and visitors alike, and continuing to play their vital role in supporting commerce and 21
the State's economy; and 22
Whereas, today, the rivers, the river lands, and the plant and animal life they support 23
are in peril, with declining populations of wildlife and native plants as well as the threat of 24
extinction for some species. The Haw River has been identified as one of America's most 25
endangered rivers because of unsafe pollution levels, including sewage leaking from aging pipes 26
and toxic runoff from roadways and parking lots. The State has issued warnings and severe 27
restrictions on eating fish from the Haw and the Dan Rivers. Both have been determined to 28
contain toxic chemicals dangerous to humans, including the "forever chemicals," such as PFAS, 29
which never decompose, increase cancer and other health risks to humans, and are widely used 30
in household goods; and 31
Whereas, these problems are not unique to our State. They exist across the United 32
States and around the world and have been described as a period of global environmental collapse 33
and the sixth major extinction of life forms in the 3.8-billion-year-long history of life on Earth; 34
and 35

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 345-First Edition
Whereas, in response, governments have responded with significant efforts to protect 1
the environment over the last 60 years. Environmental protection laws have helped protect the 2
natural environment we depend on; however, they have proven to be insufficient. Earth's climate 3
is heating; droughts, wildfires and floods are increasing in intensity and frequency; and sea level 4
is rising as population growth, land development, and economic expansion continuously increase 5
demands that humans make upon the environment; and 6
Whereas, as the environmental crisis has mounted, communities, states, and nations 7
around the globe have begun realigning laws and policies with the growing understandings, long 8
held by Indigenous societies, that we are part of the natural world and we must respect and care 9
for Nature to care for ourselves and protect our future through an understanding that nature – the 10
community of life on Earth – has rights, including the right to exist; and 11
Whereas, the Rights of Nature movement began in the United States in 2003, when 12
the Navajo Tribal Council amended its nation's written code to incorporate its indigenous 13
understanding that all life has the right to exist with these words: "all creation, from Mother Earth 14
and Father Sky to the animal ... and plant life have their own laws, and rights and freedom to 15
exist." Three years later, small towns in Pennsylvania began adopting local rights of Nature laws 16
to protect their water supplies from the ill effects of fracking and, in 2008, Ecuador became the 17
first country in the world to recognize the rights of Nature in its constitution. Since then, more 18
than 100 l