Name as it appears on the ballot: Jean-Luc Duvall
Age: 27
Party affiliation: Progressive Democrat
Campaign website: duvall4all.com
Occupation & employer: Field Organizer with the League of Conservation Voters
1. Why are you running for the position of soil and water conservation district supervisor? In your answer, please explain your understanding of the role and why it is important.
If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that I am a civil servant at my core. There is no better feeling than getting your hands dirty and your brow sweaty when you’re working hard to help your community. In all honesty, I only just recently moved to Wake County in 2018, but it’s felt like home since I first visited nearly 10 years ago. I have family in Apex (Hi Aunt Darlene and Uncle Gerry!), lived in Morrisville before moving to Raleigh, and some of my best friends from college live in the area. And in the short time I have lived in the county, I have explored countless natural areas, hiking trails, streams and lakes and the Neuse River.
The Wake County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) exists to serve landowners and land users in managing soil, water, plants, and wildlife effectively. The county's department staff is made up of conservationists and environmental educators who execute the vision set by the Board of Supervisors. The role of the supervisors is to maintain and build new relationships between the SWCD and its residents, including local farmers, schools, businesses, and landowners. They help direct the efforts of the staff based on their recommendations, and they assist with promoting and executing the department's programming, from the Big Sweep litter cleanup to the Envirothon competition. I believe the supervisors should be the face of the SWCD, facilitating communication and outreach between the staff and the community at large. Furthermore, the supervisors need to be forward thinking; the work the district does will impact the future of generations to come. To that extent, a lot of planning and coordination with other county departments and municipalities is an absolute must. If elected, you wouldn't find me behind the desk very often; it would be much more likely to find me in the field or forest engaging in hands-on conservation work alongside the staff!
I know how much this county has to offer its residents, and I want to help ensure that our government continually works to adopt the best practices possible to offer that high quality of life well into our future. Soil and Water aren’t the only components of conservation that the SWCD works on, and I look forward to expanding as much as possible on what conservation and preservation really look like in our county.
2. What are the three most pressing natural resources issues in the county? How do you plan to address these issues? Please be specific.
As Wake’s population continues to increase, so do the number of natural resource concerns the county will face as a result of increased use and development. People call Wake County home because of the high quality of life offered to residents. We have access to lakes and creeks and the Neuse River, and enjoy a wide range of wildlife in our natural areas. Part of what makes major population centers attractive is access to pristine parks for recreation and scenic open spaces; healthy, locally-grown foods and a healthy economy; and great schools that foster a child’s lifelong desire to learn. However, this same access is contributing to the loss of farmland and forest at an alarming rate. This is an important consideration as our population in Wake County continues to become younger, and perhaps this suggests how we should approach the next generation about engaging in non-traditional agriculture (i.e. community gardens, work in food deserts, etc.) and in prioritizing county funding for departments which protect water quality, rural vistas, and local foods. Encouraging and educating the public to engage in urban agriculture and community gardening on smaller plots of land will be critical to the work of the SWCD in coming years.
The loss of our undeveloped land is the catalyst for many other issues as well. There are two competing objectives that affect land use patterns and development standards within Wake County’s watersheds: the protection of water quality and the logical extension of (sub)urban development. As watersheds are urbanized, much of the vegetation is replaced by impervious surfaces, reducing the area where infiltration to groundwater can occur. As we construct more impervious surfaces and pave over natural drainageways, flash flooding and the damage it causes becomes more pronounced and frequent. We need to ensure that we are responsibly planning our community development to properly manage our stormwater, especially as extreme weather patterns become more common. We also need to redevelop our existing developments to preserve our natural areas.
Of course, the looming threat in my mind, not just to Wake County but the world at-large as well, is the climate crisis. Climate change resiliency planning is of utmost importance as changing weather patterns are already impacting our farmers. In this year’s “Keeping the Farm” workshop put on by Wake SWCD, Dr. Eric Edwards from NCSU’s Department of Agriculture highlighted current and future complications caused by climate change, most notably a 30% increase in annual precipitation due to more intense storms in the fall in conjunction with a 30% decrease in summertime precipitation and more consecutive dry days. For that matter, increasing average temperatures are having adverse effects on crop growth, stressing out plants and in some cases causing total crop failure. In order to address these issues, we will need to encourage our farmers to consider diversifying their crops. There is also a great need for better water management practices through improved summer irrigation and fall drainage. Outside of agriculture, climate change resiliency takes form in many other ways, such as replacing aging infrastructure and buildings, installing proper drainage into new developments and retrofitting older developments, and strengthening power independence through community solar grids. A lot of that is outside of the current wheelhouse of the SWCD, but if the county as a whole were to implement the NC Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan in accordance with Executive Order 80, it would require cooperation between all county departments.
3. Identify examples of how the district can best balance agricultural/rural and urban interests in regards to soil and water conservation.
One of the best things the SWCD does to balance rural and urban interests is through Voluntary Agricultural Districts. These districts increase the visibility of farm communities in the county, focus more attention on the importance of these communities to the county, and give farm owners a greater voice in local government decisions affecting their community.
As I mentioned previously, smart redevelopment of our existing developments will be crucial in preserving farmland and natural areas while also responding to the needs of a growing population. You can take a look at Hillsborough Street in Raleigh and the work done by the City of Raleigh and NC State in the past ten years to revamp the area, repurpose existing infrastructure, and redesign the street for better traffic flow. 7.5 million square feet of previously underutilized or practically abandoned spaces have been redeveloped for denser housing and market needs of the area, like the mini Target grocery center. By building our communities up rather than out, we can conserve our rural vistas more efficiently and effectively.
The SWCD has a small role in development conversations, if any at all, but plays a large role in promoting relationships between farmers and the community at-large. As more people move into the county and we encourage residents to eat healthy, locally grown foods, they will become proud of our farmers and the service they provide, and as a result, they will ascribe a high value to farmland preservation.
4. What funding issues are facing the Soil and Water Conservation District? How would you ensure the district receives full funding? Are there alternative funding sources the district could explore? If so, what are they?
I am not actually sure on the funding issues facing the SWCD, but I have seen some of the numbers on the value of benefits the SWCD provides citizens. In 2018, the staff delivered excellent customer service to Wake County’s farm community by writing USDA conservation plans for 1,511.91 acres and implementing BMPs on 4,523.42 acres which protected water quality and improved soil health. The Natural Resource Conservationists assisted farmers and landowners by visiting 582 farm tracts, wrote 29 contracts for financial assistance and encumbered $292,714 in state and federal funding. The conservationists designed and installed 47 best management practices, providing $295,005 in cost share funds to Wake County farm and farm landowners. As problems arise with intense weather-related events, the district has been receiving more requests for assistance from farmers. For that matter, the district was awarded $100,000 in relief funds after Hurricane Matthew for a stream restoration project in Wake Forest. This sort of disaster assistance and resiliency planning is the kind of forward thinking we need for our communities as we face the challenges of climate change.
Those are just a couple examples I can list you from the SWCD’s annual report, and the district does a lot more to provide financial assistance to our county residents, whether its offering scholarships to students through the environmental education programs or the Community Conservation Assistance Program that helps share in the cost of conservation projects. As for alternative funding sources, there does exist a wide variety of grants in conservation that the SWCD can apply for, including those from the National Conservation Foundation and National Association of Conservation Districts.
5. Many residents don’t know what the Soil and Water Conservation District actually does. In what ways would you reach out to residents to educate them on the issues facing the county and the district’s efforts?
I would love to engage with the various Chambers of Commerce throughout the county and their member businesses that are looking for green solutions in their operations. Many business complexes have untapped potential for water conservation and management projects, and I think there are some avenues for relationship building that have not been explored yet. I would also want to connect with the faith community and the Parks department to explore the potential for community garden programming. I would also want to accompany our conservationists on farm tract visits to meet the farmers we service in the area, as well as encourage environmental education programming in the schools. In the wake of this current pandemic, online learning resources will be critical to develop to better serve SWCD’s educational goals, and I would be very interested in assisting that development as well as spearheading the communication needed to notify schools and teachers of our resources. I think the department could use a revamp on social media and would help develop an outreach strategy that would connect us to more of our residents than we have been able to do in the past.
6. What is the district’s role in making sure residents’ water–including those people who use wells―is safe to drink? What role, if any, should the district play in safeguarding the local water supply from emerging contaminants?
Wake County SWCD’s work focuses on three main facets of water quality: stormwater management through community conservation assistance, reducing nutrients from farmland runoff in our waterways, and orchestrating litter cleanups with the county’s residents. The county’s Water Quality Division within its Environmental Services department is largely responsible for watershed management, management of recreational waters, handling septic and wastewater issues, and groundwater protection concerning . With that being said, I think there is a lot of overlap when it comes to the two separate department’s goals, and that they share a common best interest when it comes to our residents. I think that it is the responsibility of the SWCD Supervisor to facilitate conversation between the two units and ensure that resident concerns that are brought to the SWCD are also relayed to Environmental Services. Furthermore, I think that there are several threats to our water supply that our county should be proactive in protecting our residents from, such as lead pipes that have not been retrofitted or uranium, radon, and radium that has been found in some well water in the eastern part of the county. These are conversations I would also want to have with our Board of Commissioners and the director that oversees Environmental Services.
7. Are there any other issues you would like to address that have not been covered by this questionnaire?
When it comes to politics, you’re either at the table or on the menu, but I believe everyone deserves a seat. And there’s a few things I think we can all agree on together, like clean air, clean water, and the value of our natural spaces. If elected, I will represent your voice to help nurture our land.
Comment on this questionnaire at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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