"ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Developer Richard Green had nearly everything in place to build upscale homes on the heavily polluted land next to an old electronic components plant in the mountains outside Asheville. All he needed was a permit.

So when the local board of adjustment asked whether the site had hazardous materials, Green said there was only a slight level of the cancer-causing industrial solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, below the factory. He then said he had a letter from state environmental regulators saying they were OK with the construction plans. They say they weren't.

Another developer, Stanley Greenberg, told the board that federal environmental regulators also had given a green light to build. They say they hadn't."

Mitch Weiss and Michael Biesecker report for the Associated Press December 29, 2014. [2]