A report from the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project found that the North Carolina agency responsible for protecting the environment has shrunk rapidly over the last 15 years.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, lost the highest percentage of staff positions “of any state environmental agency in the U.S.”

DEQ lost nearly a third of its staff — 386 jobs — from 2010 to 2024. The agency also lost a similar percentage of funding.

The report concluded that the cuts leave North Carolina “ill-positioned” to regulate factory farming or respond to the threat of climate-driven storms and flooding.