Source: Lisa Sorg, NC POLICY WATCH, 7/19/18


Note: Franklin O. Williams, a Duplin County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor contacted Policy Watch shortly after this story was published. He said we accurately reported his comments at the meeting but that he had inaccurately stated Billy Houston had admitted wrongdoing.  “I was wrongly under the impression that Mr. Houston had admitted to some of the allegations,” Williams wrote by email. He said he also clarified his comments with the commission chair, John Langdon.  The story has been corrected to reflect Williams’ communications.


Billy Houston, who is under state investigation for allegedly falsified hog lagoon samples in Duplin and Sampson counties,  , a county official told the state Soil and Water Conservation Commission this week, and his case is prompting changes in state policy. A technician with the Duplin County Soil and Water District since 1983, Houston had a side business providing various services to hog farms that were outside the county’s purview. As Policy Watch reported last month, the State Bureau of Investigation began scrutinizing Houston’s private work after the Department of Agriculture flagged sampling results as being unusual.

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