NCDEQ receives national innovation award for Hurricane Helene response
The NC Department of Environmental Quality has received an innovation award from the Environmental Council of States (ECOS) for its work streamlining grant and loan application processes to repair and strengthen local governments’ drinking water and wastewater systems damaged by Hurricane Helene.
DEQ won a State Innovation Award in the environmental programs category at the 2026 ECOS Fall Meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The award recognized the work of DEQ’s Division of Water Infrastructure (DWI) and Division of Water Resources for their “boots on the ground” approach and for staff “standing in the trenches” with Western North Carolina communities as they sought to fix their water infrastructure.
The divisions’ work and voices from the communities were presented in a video at the meeting. The State of North Carolina last won the award in 2014.
“This award from the Environmental Council of States recognizes DEQ’s truly innovative approaches to Helene recovery,” said DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson. “While DEQ has worked hard to award more than $1 billion overall for Helene recovery, in many ways the work is just beginning. We will continue to work hand in hand with Western North Carolina communities as they continue to rebuild stronger.”
After Helene struck, DWI repurposed an emergency loan fund program to prepare for what would eventually be $75 million in bridge loans and $7 million in technical assistance grants from the General Assembly. Staff also provided training for local officials on how to apply for the funds. What would typically have taken more than a year to complete was done in just a few months. DWI then awarded, in record time, $861 million in funding to repair and make more resilient 217 drinking water and wastewater systems.
“What we saw and what I saw in Canton, what this region saw, was DEQ standing in the trenches, helping us in every way, saying, ‘You matter, we have your back, and we’re not going away,’” Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said in the video. “To see a government entity respond with such a level of leadership and friendship is innovative, and, I think, sets the gold standard to how we solve these problems going forward.”
ECOS solicited video nominations showcasing innovative environmental programs and approaches from its 50 member states. Fourteen states submitted videos for consideration in two categories: one for environmental programs and another for agency management, dashboards and permitting. Attendees at the annual meeting voted on the videos. North Carolina was one of two winners in the environmental programs category, along with New Jersey.
ECOS is a national nonprofit and nonpartisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders founded in 1993 to improve the ability of agencies to protect human health and the environment in the United States.
For more on DEQ’s Hurricane Helene response and recovery efforts, go to Hurricane Helene Recovery | NC DEQ.
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