NC Cuts Environmental Department Staff in Wake of Coal Ash Spill
From Ring of Fire:
One month after the devastating coal ash spill in the Dan River, the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) cut 13 percent of the staff positions in its Division of Water Resources. According to The News & Observer, the cuts are just the most recent step in shrinking the agency; jobs have been cut there every year since 2008.
It is alarming that DENR employees in the water protection division would be cut so soon after an environmental disaster involving the contamination of a waterway by Duke Energy. However, according to The Observer, the cuts have been planned since last summer and are just one part of a “much more far-reaching scenario that has escalated since Republicans took control in 2011.”
Since then the state has imposed heavier budget cuts, reduced restrictions on private industry and required DENR’s staff to justify the agency’s regulations in an extensive review process that is just beginning… The water resources unit has been the largest recent target for payroll savings, constituting half of the 131 layoffs and position losses in DENR since Gov. Pat McCrory took office in January 2013.
You can read the full article here at Ring of Fire.
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