North Carolina Environmental Grants Described as a “Slush Fund” By Critics

North Carolina environmental grants have been described as a “slush fund” by critics 

(The Center Square) — North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein on Thursday awarded about $1.6 million in grants to fund environmental work throughout North Carolina using a program critics have likened to a “slush fund.”

Stein highlighted 15 grants totaling $1.621 million to preserve natural resources and ensure clean air and drinking water through the Environmental Enhancement Grant program administered by the North Carolina Department of Justice.

The program was created through a 2000 agreement between the Attorney General’s Office and Smithfield Foods, which provides $2 million to the state every year to fund environmental work. Critics of the program contend the agreement is inappropriate.

“Regardless of the merits of any of these projects, this announcement reminds us of a funding arrangement that never should have taken place. As Smithfield Foods faced the threat of a regulatory smackdown from state government more than 20 years ago, then-Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Mike Easley struck a deal,” said Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation.

“Smithfield agreed to pay millions of dollars to the state. In return, the attorney general’s office gained access to funds that should have been steered instead to North Carolina’s General Fund. For roughly two decades, Easley’s successors — first Roy Cooper and now Josh Stein — have used the Smithfield money to fund their preferred environmental projects with no democratic accountability,” Kokai said. “It’s a slush fund. There’s no reason for North Carolina’s attorney general — whoever he is — to have unaccountable control over money submitted to the state under these circumstances. None.”

The grants announced on Thursday include seven in central North Carolina ranging from $49,957 to Wake County Environmental Services to expand well water awareness and testing campaigns, to $250,000 to the Tar River Land Conservancy to purchase a 669-acre property surrounding Swift Creek.

Durham County will receive $225,000 to fix erosion and install stormwater controls at Neal Middle School, which will also create a curriculum to educate students about water quality.

“Clean water is essential to healthy lives,” Stein said. “This grant will provide more clean water while educating the next generation of young scientists and engineers.”

The Hall River Assembly will also receive $105,600 to expand its in-stream litter trap program, while North Carolina State University will receive $193,773 to study areas contaminated by waste from livestock in the lower Neuse and Cape Fear watersheds.

Other grants for central North Carolina include $100,000 for the Piedmont Conservation Council to restore a riparian buffer along Person County’s Flat River and $205,440 for the Water Resources Research Institute to reduce stormwater runoff into the Walnut Creek Watershed.

Another $311,000 was devoted to five grants in Western North Carolina, which include $36,000 for Burke County Public Schools to create a wetlands area along three school properties to slow erosion, and $150,000 for the Foothills Conservancy of NC to purchase 342 acres near Blowing Rock, which includes 2.5 miles of the Johns River.

“The purchased land will eventually be added to the Pisgah National Forest and U.S. public trust lands and managed by the U.S. Forest Service,” according to a Stein statement.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina will also receive $40,000 to purchase 68 acres of forestland in southeastern Mitchell County, while the Friends of Panthertown will receive $35,000 to fix stream bank and riparian buffers along Schoolhouse Falls, Greenland Creek, and Panthertown Creek in Jackson County.

The North Carolina Arboretum Society will receive $50,000 to work with the Eastern Band of Cherokee to promote the band’s cultural heritage and educate about the environment.

Other grants include $21,000 to the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation to study the impacts of poultry pollution on water quality, $49,500 for the Town of Dallas to stabilize the streambank along Dallas Creek and $140,000 for the Davidson Lands Conservancy to conserve 113 acres of Chester Farm in Cabarrus County.

The grants announced on Thursday bring the total awards from the EEG program to $2.5 million for 23 recipients in 2022.

Including the 2022 grants, the Attorney General’s Office has awarded more than $41 million to more than 210 projects through the EEG program.