Federal officials shut down NC-funded dredging led by company with political ties

BY DAN KANE UPDATED SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 10:02 AM


The Miss Katie, a dredge funded by $15 million from state lawmakers in 2018. It keeps open boating channels in the Oregon Inlet and other coastal waterways. Dare County

A dredging company launched with $15 million in state money must cease its work in the Oregon and Hatteras inlets after digging deeper and wider than permits allowed hundreds of times, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. EJE Dredging Service is led by an influential North Carolina Republican who is under scrutiny by a federal grand jury.

The Corps suspended permits that it had issued to Dare County to dredge channels in the two inlets after finding that 98% of EJE Dredging Service’s loads of dredged materials over a nine-month period were removed either partially or completely outside designated channels. ... Data pulled from sensors on EJE’s shallow-draft hopper dredge showed it had dredged as far as 445 feet beyond a 100-foot wide channel in the Oregon Inlet. ... “I have been with the Corps for 22 years and I have never seen anything like this,” said Tommy Fennel, the regulatory chief for the Wilmington district, which covers North Carolina.

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EJE Dredging was formed by Judson Whitehurst, a Greenville business owner, three months after state lawmakers provided the $15 million to Dare County for dredging. The following year, company documents showed Jordan Hennessy, a former legislative aide who helped convince lawmakers to provide funding for the dredging, working on behalf of EJE Dredging. He’s been the CEO for at least two years.

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Brooke Burr, wife of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, and Jordan Hennessy, christen the Miss Katie dredge at a Dare County ceremony Oct. 13, 2022. Dare County

Hennessy has been named in two subpoenas linked to a federal criminal investigation for his work on another project funded by state lawmakers in 2020. Subpoenas issued over the past three months show a grand jury seeks information about Hennessy and one of his businesses as it investigates a domestic violence prevention program funded with $3.5 million also appropriated by state lawmakers.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was modified to more accurately describe the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District regulatory chief’s understanding on whether a former Corps employee still worked for EJE Dredging Service. And when federal officials halted a plan to build jetties in Oregon Inlet.

Power & Secrecy is a News & Observer investigative series exploring both in North Carolina state government, especially the N.C. General Assembly since 2011, when Republican lawmakers won control of both chambers. Find all stories at www.newsobserver.com/topics/power-secrecy This story was originally published September 18, 2024, 5:48 PM.

On the Same Day Sen. Richard Burr Dumped Stock, So Did His Brother-in-Law. Then the Market Crashed.
Source: ProPublica

Sen. Richard Burr was not the only member of his family to sell off a significant portion of his stock holdings in February, ahead of the market crash spurred by coronavirus fears. On the same day Burr sold, his brother-in-law also dumped tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares. The market fell by more than 30% in the subsequent month.

Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, who has a post on the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn.

A person who picked up Fauth’s phone on Wednesday hung up when asked if Fauth and Burr had discussed the sales in advance.

In 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Fauth to the three-person board of the National Mediation Board, a federal agency that facilitates labor-management relations within the nation’s railroad and airline industries. He was previously a lobbyist and president of his own transportation economic consulting firm, G.W. Fauth & Associates.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/burr-family-stock {edited to trim link}