Two state environmental engineers have been called to testify before a federal grand jury this week, including one who examined the permit for a development where then-Gov. Mike Easley bought land in 2005.
Federal prosecutors in Raleigh asked Nathaniel Thornburg and Jim Bushardt to visit the grand jury, according to subpoenas provided by the N.C. Division of Water Quality, where both men work.
Based on people asked to testify and documents sought in recent months, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh has been examining a wide range of activities involving Easley's airplane travels while governor and former first lady Mary Easley's job at N.C. State University.
Thornburg was the primary reviewer of a wastewater treatment facility license for Cannonsgate. The development at Bogue Sound in Carteret County was approved by the division in June 2005, according to a division document listing issued permits.
The Easleys accepted a $137,000 discount on a waterfront lot at Cannonsgate six months after the permit was granted. The Easleys put down earnest money for the land less than two weeks after the licensing.
Both Thornburg and Bushardt, who works in the Wilmington regional office, are involved in express permitting, in which licensing decisions are performed more quickly than traditional permitting. The applicant must pay higher fees to receive the more intensive attention.
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