Source: Travis Fain, WRAL, 12/16/19

North Carolina's environmental watchdog agency took some of the biggest budget cuts in the country over the last 10 years, according to a state-by-state look at pollution control funding. State officials take issue with some of the report's findings, but no one disputes that the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality saw significant cuts in the last decade. The issue has been discussed for years, most recently as lawmakers debated the state's response to chemical releases in the Cape Fear River.

For more of this story, click here.