State: Mount Olive violated moratorium

The town has been under a wastewater moratorium since 2015, but Mount Olive has, according to an official from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, been violating the terms of a Special Order of Consent it signed off on — an agreement that, among other things, prohibited the town from adding wastewater capacity to its system.

And if it happens again, criminal charges could follow.

That was the message delivered to members of the Town Board earlier this month, just a few days before a damning investigative report that excoriated the town was published by the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor.

NCDEQ engineer Caroline Bari, a Mount Olive native who was assigned to the distressed wastewater system less than two years ago, said the violations were “serious.”

“In the original consent order, among other things was a list of items that needed to be completed and dates. These milestones, the town got behind and was starting to get fined … so the state and the town renegotiated the consent order and signed the new one in April 2025. The main revisions relate to the dates in which these different items are due,” she said. “But in both of these consent orders, one very important issue is that the town of Mount Olive is not allowed to add wastewater capacity to the wastewater system. That’s the flow moratorium that everybody has heard about. You cannot add additional flow to your system.”

The town, though, did anyway, a fact Bari said she became aware of June 30.

“I advised the town to immediately report this to (the state),” she said. “Just from my professional opinion, I thought it was better for them to hear it from the town than from another source.”

Then, a face-to-face meeting between town and state officials was held in July.

“We had a lengthy discussion about the violations that had taken place and the consent order requirements,” Bari said. “Unfortunately, the bottom line is (the state) made it clear that if there are further violations of the flow moratorium, it could result in additional actions by the state, including an injunction or criminal prosecution. So, this is a pretty serious issue.”

Mayor Jerome Newton agreed.

“We have to be very concerned, but mostly, we have to enforce these rules because, as was stated earlier, it could become criminal,” he said. “The corrective action is to stop it.”

Bari’s presentation came after the meeting’s public comment period, during which Annette Kirby criticized Interim Town Manager Glenn Holland’s recent interview with a Duplin County news outlet about the moratorium.

She was not, she said, satisfied with the answers Holland gave for the story — specifically, his failure to acknowledge the lack of progress on the town’s wastewater issues despite “millions of dollars” that has been awarded to the town since it was put into place a decade ago.

“Nowhere in the interview did it acknowledge the millions of dollars that have literally been thrown away due to a lack of oversight and planning. Without competent, engaged, and fully accountable leadership, we will never get past this,” Kirby said. “How many millions of dollars have we thrown away so far? How many millions of dollars have we gotten allocated?”

And where, she asked, was the outrage?

“It’s time everyone in this town stands up and says, ‘This is enough,’” she said. “Do we really even know what is needed to get ourselves out of this moratorium? We’re looking for some solutions to our problems. We’re not looking for, ‘We don’t know what we’re doing.’ We need more than hope. We need an immediate change.”

Kirby’s comments were not the first commissioners have heard this year regarding the state measure that has spurned development in the town.

In fact, residents have been packing meetings for months now.

In February, David Kornegay told the board that the moratorium was thwarting his ability to sell commercial real estate — that he has been contacted by nearly a dozen “national franchise companies” but has not been able to sell his land because the town has not made any progress toward getting the state’s ban on additional wastewater hookups lifted.

“Every single time when they find out we have no sewer and they have to put in a septic tank, they turn around and go away,” he said. “They go on to another town and forget about us.”

That, State Rep. John Bell has told New Old North on numerous occasions, is hurting economic development initiatives across Wayne County.

And in his view, it’s “unacceptable,” particularly given all the money he and other state leaders have directed to Mount Olive to resolve its wastewater issues — funds Bell believes have been more than enough to put the town’s woes in the rearview.

That is why earlier this year, after the town was notified by the NCDEQ’s Division of Water Infrastructure that it would receive $7,363,920 from the State Water Infrastructure Authority for a sewer line rehabilitation project and a “find and fix” effort that could put a dent in inflow and infiltration issues, Bell told New Old North that his frustration with Mount Olive leaders was beginning to boil over.

“My biggest concern is, here it is, once again we’re helping Mount Olive. They have received millions upon millions of dollars to fix their issue, but it’s up to the Town Board to get it done,” Bell said. “We have helped Mount Olive numerous times. It’s time for Mount Olive to fix its issues. And it’s time for everyone in the town to hold that board accountable. No more excuses. Their issues are a direct result of mismanagement. They have mismanaged millions of dollars. It’s been going on for years. Well, now they have additional funds that they can use to fix their issues. It’s time. It’s time to get off the moratorium.”