Vigil targets N.C. hog waste pollution

Joining together to create what they call the "largest coalition of environmental grass roots organizations ever assembled in North Carolina," two dozen groups working for environmental justice are holding a vigil this week outside the North Carolina legislature to draw attention to the state's hog waste pollution problem and the toll it's taking on people and the environment. The vigil will last for 51 hours -- one hour for each day lawmakers are expected to remain in session this year.

North Carolina is home to about 7 million hogs, making it second in the nation for hog production. Raising hogs in confined industrial operations creates an enormous amount of waste that's currently being sprayed on fields and stored in open cesspools known as "lagoons." Runoff from these operations is a big contributor to enormous nutrient pollution problem affecting the state's rivers.

In 1997, the N.C. legislature passed a moratorium on the creation of new hog lagoons as well as the expansion of existing ones. While the moratorium has been extended several times, it's currently set to expire this September.

The vigil participants -- which include religious, environmental advocacy and labor groups -- are pushing for legislation that would permanently ban hog waste lagoons and sprayfields. They also want lawmakers to set a date for phasing out current facilities, and to provide safe drinking water for people whose groundwater has been contaminated by hog waste pollution.

The vigil begins today at 3 p.m. and is set to last until 6 p.m. on Thursday. Participants will be offering educational materials and showing video documentaries on problems associated with industrial hog operations. They'll also be meeting with legislators to encourage them to take action.

For more details on the legislation under consideration, click here. For more on the vigil, click here.

Raleigh soft on developer fraud?

Catching up on some reading recently, I came across a jaw-dropping series of posts on the excellent Below the Beltline blog documenting how the developer of the Wake Crossings Plaza in Northeast Raleigh, faced with having to get permission from nearby residents to take away 20 feet of their backyards for a landscape buffer, forged the signatures of a resistant couple on a landscape easement and filed it with the city. Donald Genford of Genford Development Co. has reportedly been charged by police with committing forgery, a crime punishable by a fine and up to 10 years in prison.

What may be as outrageous as the developer attempting to defraud the public was the reaction of the Raleigh Planning Commission members when the forgery was brought up at a public hearing on the site plan. Genford owner Steve Fitzpatrick told commissioners that there was a problem with one of the project documents -- what he characterized as a "legal technicality." But the couple involved, Romeo and Vita Mazzaluna, offered a different perspective. They said that after refusing to sign the easement on their attorney's advice, they called a city planner to check on the development's status only to be informed that the Register of Deeds had their signed document on file -- "not by us," Mr. Mazzaluna said, "but a forged document, and that is the technicality that he talked about, and so, I don't understand."

Outraged, Commissioner Maha Chambliss motioned to reject the plan. But Chairman James Baker -- himself a developer with Charleston Homes -- said the commission didn't have all the necessary information. Chambliss' motion died for lack of a second, and Baker's motion to delay the matter passed. Writes BTB's Lunsford Lane:

At this point, I would normally be out of my chair screaming at the TV! But I was so literally stunned. Speechless, breathless, motionless, wide eyes glued to the tube, not even blinking. What does that idiot mean we don’t have all the information yet? The developer all but outright admitted to the Commissioners that the easement document was forged. After the meeting, when it is was crystal clear to him that the gig was up, Fitzpatrick was much more direct with the North Raleigh News, “Oh, it's forged.”

The lack of outrage by any Commissioner other that Chambliss is just, well, just staggering. Not unexplainable, given the Commissioners we were dealt, but staggering nonetheless. If I had free time (the lack of which is evidenced by my recent post rate), I'd start a new website called jimbakermustgo.com.

I wonder how this will affect Genford projects around the city? Besides Wake Crossing, they include the slow-moving and problem-plagued retail and condo project at the corner of Brookside and Glascock. I wonder: If Genford goes under, can we get back the grassy lot that used to be there?