wilkes

I agree that he should not have dumped the manure and should be punished. However the statement, how many people have been drinking raw cow manure is dumb. The water that goes through a water filtration plant removes the impurities. If it did not, think of all the run off that gets into streams from not just farming. The dead fish, animals that in the stream and naturally occuring manure.

He got off way to easy. Should have been mandatory jail time to set a precedent.

He should be in jail.

Protein water

i wouldn't say either the right or the left has a monopoly on corruption, entitlement, or hubris

Another **** making this political.

The corruption of the right shouldn't surprise us anymore, but yet the rubes keep electing these " good ole boys" . His punishment should include at least 10 years of hard labor shoveling cow patties.

Hand a glass of that drinking water to every person that wants eliminate the EPA

Holy Crap!!!!

ASHEVILLE, NC �The owner of one of North Carolina's largest dairy farms was sentenced Thursday after dumping 11,000 gallons of cow feces into the French Broad River in 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release.

The Department of Justice sentenced William "Billy" Franklin Johnston to four years of probation, six months of which must be spent in home detention, and fined him $15,000, Lia Bantavani with the department said.

Johnston's dairy company, Tap Root, was fined $80,000 and placed on four-years probation, Bantavani said.

A criminal bill of information that was filed in U.S. District Court in November 2013 charged Tap Root and Johnston, 62, of Mills River, with one count of violation of the Clean Water Act.

Johnston, a Council member for Mills River, also serves as a board member for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/n...r/32674834

Of course, just like with our own Neil Cashion, this guy got a slap on the wrist; 6 months of "home detention" and probation. But God knows how long he had been doing this! How many years, or even decades, was he purposefully destroying the drinking water for 25 municipalities?

http://riverlink.org/learn/...ver-facts/

How many hundreds of thousands of people were drinking raw cow manure? It's just disgusting.

And it's only made worse to know that this guy was not only on the Town Council, but was appointed by the Governor to be a board member for the Dept. of Agriculture in 2009! Even after he was charged in 2013, he continued to be on the board until May 1, 2015. This is the man that helped to make the laws to prevent these types of things!

It's just unbelievable.