NC Policy Watch
An aerial view taken in 2018 of 550 Benny Ross Road. The property owner, Russell Stoutt, claimed he was preparing the land for a horse farm, a house and then crops. Falls Lake can be seen in the background.
First, the land suffocating under 40 feet of dirt and construction trash was to become a horse pasture. But no horses ever arrived. Then, the man responsible for the dumping said he planned to put a house there. But no house was ever built. Then, the man said, there would be crops. But no crops were ever planted.
Instead, for more than three years John Russell Stoutt III, already notorious among state environmental regulators for previous violations, illegally accepted hundreds of tons of debris, including plastic, rebar and unknown materials, including some from the state Department of Transportation, on his property near Falls Lake.
Falls Lake, which straddles Durham and Wake counties, is classified as a critical area by the state because it serves as the major drinking water supply for the city of Raleigh. The dumping occurred at Benny Ross Road in rural Durham County, just a half-mile from the lake and within its sensitive watershed. The story of Stoutt and the illegal activity, documented in dozens of violations, demonstrates how repeat offenders can endanger the environment and exploit loopholes in state law with impunity.
News & Observer
182 beaches in the Carolinas had 'potentially unsafe water pollution levels'
More than 100 North Carolina beaches and waterways were potentially unsafe for swimming at least one day last year because they were contaminated with bacteria that makes people sick. A report by Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center released Monday said 127 of 213 areas in the state had levels of fecal contamination that made swimming unsafe on at least one day in 2018. Fecal contamination comes from runoff, sewer overflows and leaks, and industrial farms, the report said. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality tests water at 204 coastal beaches weekly or every other week between April and September, twice a month in October, and monthly from November through March, and posts advisories on its website. Four of the top 10 sites in North Carolina with potentially unsafe swimming days were in Beaufort County. A Pamlico Sound access point in Belhaven had 11 potentially unsafe days, the most recorded in the state, according to the report.
News & Observer
Lt. Gov Dan Forest
DAN FOREST FORCED TO RETURN $15,000 IN CAMPAIGN DONATIONS: N.C. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a Republican who plans to run for governor in 2020 against Democrat Roy Cooper, has been forced to forfeit thousands of dollars due to campaign finance violations. An audit of Forest’s campaign by the North Carolina State Board of Elections found numerous violations. In all, Forest resolved the audit by giving up more than $15,000. Most of the money the Forest campaign had to forfeit came from conservative groups that operate in federal politics but weren’t properly registered to get involved in state politics. That included $5,000 from a group whose name appears to have been listed as a misspelling of the Energy Solutions Inc. Fund For Effective Government, which supports electric utility companies, $2,500 from the Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion, and $500 from a group called Citizens for Constitutional Liberties.
BlueNC
Some guy, Trump and Forest
Next Saturday, August 17, Photo Opportunist Dan Forest will officially launch his campaign for governor. We say "officially" because running for governor is pretty much all Dan Forest has done since he was elected to the least relevant job in state government. Week in and week out, Forest slimes around the state, getting his picture taken by lily white interns standing next to people who seldom realize they're being mugged.
We received an email from the Cooper campaign with a headline that hit the nail on the head: Prepare for the worst. That's because Dan has gone full nativist on the people of North Carolina. He's not just taken a page from Trump's filthy playbook, Forest has memorized the whole damn thing. Lie when you can, and even when you can't. Declare yourself the Second Coming and parade your faux-Christian values like a whore in one of Trump's hotels. Get people to like you by helping them to hate one another. And spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars pretending you're carrying out the people's business.
And that's not even the worst of it. Forest is already sucking up millions from out-of-state Republicans who don't want their tax breaks threatened. It's a simple as that. Those donors don't care about our clown in the lieutenant governor's office, all they want is a stooge who will represent their greedy interests.
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