As NC pollution concerns grow, so do environmental budget cuts

News and Observer: Just days after North Carolina environmental regulators began looking into a potentially hazardous pollutant in one of the state’s biggest rivers, state lawmakers cut their funding.

In the new budget they passed June 22, legislators ordered the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to cut $1.8 million over the next two years.

It was just the latest in a decade of cuts to state regulators. While exact budget comparisons are difficult because of shifting agency responsibilities, money directed to environmental regulation has dropped by millions of dollars over the last decade, even as the state budget has grown significantly.

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