North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-05-18

It's Tuesday, May 18th, tonight, saving a dying breed in North Carolina now. Good evening. I'm Marita Matrai. Welcome to North Carolina now for this Tuesday evening. You might say the theme of tonight's program is about overcoming challenges. There are portions of our state that are faced with the challenges that come from the explosion of growth. This evening we'll look at how that expansion in eastern North Carolina is putting pressure on that area's water supply. And as we all aged, we are faced with changes in our eyesight, hearing, our reaction time, all of which make it challenging to drive. Tonight we'll learn how the highway patrol and the American Association of Retired Persons are teaming up to help motorists over 50, bone up on their driving skills. But first, to a challenge facing entomologists.

What to do about the dwindling honey bee population? It's spring in North Carolina, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, or at least they should be. Chances are you probably haven't seen one in a while. That's because honey bees are dying off at an alarming rate, and the consequences may be more serious than you think. Some local scientists fear that if something isn't done to save the honey bee, crops will suffer, and produce prices may soar. Reporter John Arnold has more. In agriculture research fields, stretching over the Carolina countryside east of Raleigh, North Carolina State University students are buzzing about their latest research. I just emptied out this pollen trap about a half hour ago, and so all this pollen has been collected in half hour. The bees they study are in trouble, their future in this country unclear. Over the past decade, 90% of the state's wild honey bee population has been wiped out. Their attacker is the Varroa mite, a tiny parasite that scientists say is disrupting an important

balance in nature. The serious problem though is pollination. About a third of every American's diet, in other words, a third of what you eat each day comes from plants that are bee pollinated, and not just honey bees, but mostly bee pollinated. So, if you have a decrease in bees, you've got a decrease in food, or at least an increase in cost. Because without wild bees pollinating their crops, farmers must rely almost completely on commercial beekeepers who ran out their colonies. Carter Linkis is a beekeeper in Eastern Wake County. The bee is, you know, a lot of personal thinking. The only value of the honey bee at this time is in pollination. He started as a hobby for Carter. After he bought a couple of hives to pollinate his fruit trees. Even today, two decades after he began this business, you can find Carter at his blueberry bushes on summer mornings, picking berries for breakfast. But not even commercial beekeepers are safe from the hungry Varroa mite.

More than a third of the state's managed bee colonies have been destroyed. There are ways for beekeepers to protect and treat their hives, but they can be costly in time consuming, which is why Carter cut way back on the number of bees he rents out to farmers. Because of the extra effort and expense to keep the colonies alive, you head to scale back. The Varroa mite problem has become so serious, top enemologists fear, without help from modern science, the entire American honey bee population could disappear. We have pests now, these mites that are so virulent because they've actually jumped of species line from one species of bee to another, that our bees have very, very little tolerance, let alone resistance for them. So if there wasn't man involved in the process, we might actually lose all our bees. Now, they might rebound, they might come back 10, 15 years from now, but in the short term, you could see a situation where there wasn't a honey bee to be found. Which is why Dr. Ambrose and his students have been so busy lately.

Back at NCSU's research farm, we found graduate student Mike Stanghalini, working through rows of pumpkin and watermelon. He's studying bumblebees as alternative pollinators to the honey bee. Per bee, bumblebees are more efficient pollinators. They visit more flowers, they start earlier in the day, and they carry more pollen on them. So when they do visit, they deposit more pollen and they can visit more flowers. So a rough estimate would be, one bumblebee equals four to eight honey bees. Thing is that their population sizes are smaller. Other researchers are focusing their attention on ways to get rid of the mite. Lane Tabor is looking into biological factors like temperature and humidity as mechanisms for controlling the vera mite. Lane is concerned about the fate of the honey bee, not only as a researcher. But also as a consumer, you know, I eat a lot of vegetables and fruit that are primarily honey bee pollinated, and I think that you'll see a difference in the cost of certain products

because of this. You may also see a difference in your backyard garden. Dr. Ambrose says he's been getting calls from home gardeners who see empty vines and don't know why. Somebody will call in and say, I've got a couple of mounds of squash or watermelon, and there's all kinds of yellow flowers, but I'm not getting any fruit. What do you think's wrong? And of course they expect you're going to say, well, there's a disease or a pest problem. It's very simply that your starbees out there pollinating it. Despite the grim outlook, though, Dr. Ambrose, his students and even Carter Linkis are optimistic the mite can be defeated and the honey bee can be saved. But until that happens, the vera mite will continue to frustrate farmers, beekeepers, and maybe even consumers who may soon start feeling the sting of higher prices at the checkout line. According to Dr. Ambrose, the vera mite is native to Southeast Asia and was accidentally brought to the United States by researchers in the 1980s. Today, the mite threatens honey bee populations worldwide.

Well coming up on North Carolina now, we'll look at a new driving program designed to help senior citizens. But first, Mitchell Lewis is standing by to fill us in on today's top statewide news stories. Hello, Mitch. Hi there, Marita. Good evening, everyone. Following the news, opposing signs of North Carolina's congressional redistricting issue will have to go to court to sort out their differences. A decision this week by the U.S. Supreme Court is forcing the state to conduct a trial to settle the matter. In the unanimous opinion of the high court, a lower federal court acted hastily in overturning North Carolina's 12th congressional district. The district, represented by Congressman Mel Wat, has been at the center of years of legal wrangling over the degree to which race may be used to draw a voting district. The courts have given us a tough task. The Voting Rights Act says that we must pay attention to race when we draw these districts. The Supreme Court has told us, but you can't pay too much attention to race. So we have a very thin margin there.

But I'm hoping that in the end, that we will find the way to be fair to pay attention to race, but not too much attention to race, to draw districts that respect geographic boundaries, try to keep whole precincts, and try to draw something that makes sense and is fair to everyone involved. Cooper says the immediate effect of the U.S. Supreme Court decision is that the state's congressional districts go back to the 1997 map, allowing the 12th congressional district stretching from Charlotte to Greensboro. Republican Representative Richard Morgan has been named to succeed Leo Dottry as House Minority Leader. Morgan served as chairman of the House Rules Committee from 1995 through 1998 during Republican leadership of the state House. Morgan, who represents the Morecowdy Sandhills region, has been a member of the North Carolina House since 1991. Morgan assumes his new leadership position immediately and replaces Leo Dottry, who is vying for the GOP nomination for governor. There's one year left before the Republican gubernatorial primary, but one candidate

is getting his name out there early. Former state representative Chuck Neely is already airing 30-second television spots. The move is apparently an attempt to increase Neely's recognition among North Carolina residents and also a way to boost fundraising. Neely entered the GOP primary race just three weeks ago. He faces GOP competition from state representative Leo Dottry and former Charlotte Mayor Richard VinRoot. State Commerce Department officials say they will proceed with a planned trip to China next week, despite recent tensions stemming from the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. Commerce Secretary Rick Carlisle is leading a 62-member delegation of government officials and banking representatives to a conference in Shanghai. A Commerce Department spokeswoman says an advisory against traveling to China has been lifted, and those making the trip have been assured that safety is not an issue at this point. A nationwide survey has ranked North Carolina 37th in an annual assessment of child well-being. According to the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute, in order for the state to reach

Governor Hunts' goal of being number one in education, the state must improve the well-being of children and improve schools. The survey cites six factors that cause a high risk of negative outcomes in children. They included families without two parents, families headed by a high school dropout, a family income below the poverty line, parents who lack steady full-time jobs, families receiving welfare, and children not covered by health insurance. A steering committee has decided a site in Raleigh is the best place to build a state performing arts center. The city chose the site of the former Polk Youth Center near the North Carolina Museum of Art. The group believes the 43-acre area, which is owned by the state, is preferable to other proposed locations and will give the center room to grow. A performing arts center was envisioned by the late Governor Terry Sanford and has the support of Governor Hunt. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather, most places will see highs ranging from the mid-semities to mid-80s, partly to mostly sunny skies are expected with a slight chance for a shower

or thunderstorm at the coast. In business news, Raleigh's Roman Catholic dioceses is getting involved in a national boycott of North Carolina's Mount Olive Pickle Company. The company is receiving pressure to sign a contract with cucumber growers and their pickers to improve pay and working conditions for farm hands. Bishop Joseph Gossman has endorsed the boycott because of the Roman Catholic Church's commitment to economic justice for migrant farm workers. Mount Olive says it's being unfairly placed in the middle of a dispute that should be between cucumber growers and the pickers they hire. A dozen of North Carolina's power, gas and phone companies have assured the state utilities commission that North Carolinians will not incur difficulties from the Y2K problem. Most of the representative utilities expect to have all of their critical systems ready by mid-summer, and will take the rest of the year to work out any potential glitches. Utility company officials say if something happens to go wrong, contingency plans have been developed.

A Charlotte businessman says he will pull his office out of the state if lawmakers go through with their plan to bar car makers from opening their own dealerships. Businessman Don Huddler runs a major satin office in the Queen City, and he says his operation is set up to do exactly what the proposed legislation would forbid. It is to buy and operate car dealerships. The executive vice president of the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association says, allowing car makers to compete against independent dealers could put small dealers out of business and drive up prices. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. The State Highway Patrol is teaming up with the American Association of retired persons

to promote better driving among older motorists. Statistics show that crash rates based on miles traveled are highest for seniors and teenagers. In order to improve the safety of our roadways, the Patrol and AARP, are offering driving courses for older motorists called 55 Alive, mature driving program, and joining me now to tell us all about it is Sergeant Jeff Winstead of the State Highway Patrol Sergeant Winstead. Welcome back to North Carolina now. Thank you for having us. Tell us about this program that is something that started back with the AARP. This is an AARP program. It's been evolving since 1979. It's a defensive driving course that's targeted specifically to the senior citizens, specifically to their needs. And what is the highway patrol's involvement with this program? We're taking our traffic safety information branch, our public educators, and sending them to school.

And they're learning this curriculum and also learning how to teach the senior citizen. They learn a little bit differently. What exactly is covered in this course? A great deal is covered. The primary thing, of course, are the effects of the aging process as it relates to driving. There's things as diminished vision, peripheral vision, decision-making capacity, reaction times, these types of things, as well as giving you the skills that it takes to understand and adapt. Probably, I would imagine that senior citizens maybe have a different type of moving violation, as opposed to the rest of the driving population. So do you target those types of things? Generally, the senior citizen doesn't speed, drive recklessly, or drive haul impaired. Those things usually aren't problems. The problems are such things as merging into traffic at the end of a ramp, yielding the right of way, or interacting with other traffic. Their specific area is that there can be some problems and their skills that they can learn to overcome these.

I mentioned in the introduction that statistics show that seniors and teenagers have the highest of the crash rates, but let's take it down to a personal level. What are you finding here in North Carolina? Are you finding this to be a problem? It can be last year we had 249 seniors, age 65 and older, that were killed in car crashes. We had nearly 28,000 car crashes involving seniors age 65 and older. Those numbers are a bit frightening to us. The raw data, in terms of strictly the numbers of crashes, they're not disproportionate. When you look at the number of miles traveled, that's when it begins to concern us greatly. We all seem to think that we are the best drivers in the world, and this is a voluntary course. How do you go out to appeal to the seniors that this is of benefit to them? Well, this is not something that the highway patrol is coming saying, gee, you must come. This is offered and it's been developed since 79, again, by the AARP, and they have a tremendous credibility within their own constituency, and this is absolutely the best defensive

driving course that we were able to find for the senior citizen. We're not reinventing the wheel, we're becoming a part of it, and we feel that's indeed important. When you look at the mobility issues, the independence issues, the quality of life, we don't have mass transit all over the state of North Carolina. When seniors are making a decision, gee, do I need to go renew my license one more time or curtailing the nighttime driving in particular, again, learning skills to adapt, understand, and overcome the problems. So tell us about the logistics of how this all works. Let's say there's somebody out there watching this that wants to take one of these courses. What do they do? It's offered roughly 300 times per year all over the state of North Carolina. There's an 888 number that you can call. Be ready to enter your zip code. So transfer you to AARP volunteers, and someone will be back with you within two to three days to help you find a course in your community.

These courses are offered during the daytime. They don't require you to travel during the rush hours. So please call the 888 number. Okay, and we'll be giving that phone number at the conclusion of this interview. But first I wanted to ask you how time consuming is this. I mean, is somebody out there going to be required to devote a great amount of time to attend these classes? It's eight hours. Four hours for two days, four hours for two days. But again, it's a good comprehensive course. Some insurance carriers will even offer senior citizens discounts if they'll complete this particular course. So I'm closer to 50 than I am to 16. So let me take the seniors' point of view. Why not offer this for teenagers? Teenagers have drivers' education when they first learn to drive an automobile. They're also involved with the graduated licensing program. That's something that our general assembly gave us only last year. And I look for measurable results from that soon, but again, they've had drivers' education. Many seniors have never had any formal drivers' education.

And yet they're like all of us. They're not necessarily defensive drivers, but most of them are very defensive about their driving. Well Sergeant Winston, thank you so much for the information. I really appreciate it. Sounds like a worthwhile program, so thanks for taking the time to share the information with us. Thank you. Okay. A phone number, seniors who are interested in taking the two day eight dollar course, you can call AARP at 1-888-227-7669. Growth planners in the eastern part of the state are bracing for a new set of water use restrictions expected to come down from the legislature.

The restrictions would levy capacity use limits on a number of coastal counties, requiring them to obtain a permit to increase any future water capacity levels. Tonight producer Derek Long takes a look at how eastern North Carolina is dealing with rapid growth and shrinking water supplies. North Carolina is predominantly a rural state, one that is blessed with an abundance of natural beauty and resources. But population growth and development is pushing the sustainable limits of our environment like never before. It's hard to make people believe here when all the water we've got in eastern North Carolina and the rains that we have a shortage of water, they just don't or will not understand that we do have a critical problem in eastern North Carolina. Some areas of our state are growing more rapidly than others and these rapid growth areas are using more water. Some of the most dramatic growth has occurred in our coastal counties, onslaught, craven, harder at and Pamlico counties grew by an average of 65% over the past three decades.

This growth is taxing the aquifers in six eastern counties to the extent that the water tables are dropping at a rate of up to eight feet a year, threatening both water quantity and quality. We need to study that area carefully and determine how much sustainable yield of groundwater can be provided from that aquifer and we need to not exceed that because if we do we may dewater the aquifer and reduce its long-range potential or induce saltwater intrusion. Onslaught County has had to come up with new ways to supplement its water usage. Officials have addressed that by tapping into the nearby Castellan aquifer. These two plants in Onslaught County will last us and take care of our needs for 20 to 25 years. That's the estimation now. The bottom line is going to be that in eastern North Carolina people are going to be thinking about water quantity in addition to water quality over the next three or four decades.

All of a sudden people are realizing that the water they have thought of is theirs is not only in high demand by the people around them but maybe somebody way over there. But it's not just water consumption that's that issue. There's also the other end of the pipeline. So another water management issue in coastal North Carolina is what to do with the waste water that we generate from water use. One of the options in which we hope to employ in our plan is the maximum recycling and reuse of the water, return it back to the aquifers through farms, golf courses and anybody else that can use that. The reuse of treated wastewater can essentially be a new water supply not for drinking water in our homes but for slightly lower types of uses like irrigation and industry. Another solution being considered is a method of wastewater disposal called ocean outfall

which is simply pumping treated wastewater out to sea. When we talk about ocean outfall we're talking about terrestrial treatment which is 98 percent pure that's piped off of the coast and will not harm our cofisher aquatic life. Ocean outfall by itself is normally considered a last resort in the hierarchy of dealing with waste because it is sheer disposal. Waste material is dumped into ocean systems but more importantly it also in many cases constitutes an unbridled license to build because if you can dispose of 10 million gallons in most cases you can dispose of 20 million gallons or 30 or 40 or 50. Some regard sewer systems as the best insurance to protect the environment in the face of sprawling population but others are concerned that providing county-wide sewer systems will only compound the problem.

In many cases the very ills that drive ocean outfall meaning failing septic tanks and things like that can actually be surpassed by environmental problems caused by putting central sewer systems in place in very sensitive coastal habitats. You end up with more people, more people, more houses, more impervious surface, more run-off, more bacteria moving into shellfish waters, more coastal shellfish waters. And a few or so waters that are closed as a result of putting central sewer systems in place. You can control growth only to a certain extent. What you have to do is you have to protect your environment as well as that quality of life and you do that by providing good sewer. Sewer is critical, we do not have county-wide sewer but we are working on that. The North Carolina General Assembly has taken actions to encourage good water supply planning. Its statute requires all local governments to do a water supply plan, identifying their

future needs and how they intend to meet those needs. But the cumulative effect of more people and activity on the landscape threatens the sustainability of our natural resources. We've got very little assimilative capacity left in any river. We've got very little assimilative capacity left on any air shed for any kind of pollutants. We need to think about what kind of society we want to have in North Carolina. And local governments and perhaps to some extent state government need to think about how to protect the kind of quality of life that we want to have in North Carolina and plan for that and not wait for an artificial constraint of absolute water shortage to save us. Because I'm afraid if we wait until we get to that point, it may be too late. Ansla County is working on a regional plan for water use which includes a proposal to partner with the Marine Corps base at Camp LeJune. And that wraps up tonight's edition of North Carolina and please join us tomorrow for an

interview with gubernatorial candidate Richard VinRoot and look at the progress being made on preparations to relocate the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Have a great night. Have a great night everyone.