North Carolina Land and Water Fund

North Carolina Land and Water Fund (NCLWF) was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1996 as the 'Clean Water Management Trust Fund'. The fund is an independent non-regulatory agency housed in the Division of Land and Water Stewardship in the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The special revenue fund was created "to clean up pollution in the State's surface waters and to protect and conserve those waters that are not yet polluted. The intent of the fund is "to focus on the cleanup and prevention of pollution of the State's surface waters, the establishment of a network of riparian buffers and greenways, and the preservation of property for establishing clean water supplies, the General Assembly believes that the results of these efforts will also be beneficial to wildlife and marine fisheries habitats." NCLWF issues grants to a variety of entities including local governments, state agencies and nonprofit corporations "whose primary purpose is the conservation, preservation, and restoration of our State's environmental and natural resources".