Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Susan Evans are both pulling in substantial amounts of cash in the District 8 race, including money from the Popes, Bob Luddy and the Campbells.

The new campaign report filed today by Margiotta shows he had raised $40,367.33 as of Aug. 30 with $34,111.23 on hand. The new report for Evans shows she had raised $26,406.43 as of Aug. 30 with $21,405.30 on hand.

The biggest donors for Margiotta in his new report are the $4,000 apiece from conservative businessman Art Pope, his wife Katherine Pope and conservative businessman Bob Luddy.

Gov. Bev Perdue and several other Democratic Party leaders are scheduled to attend a Thursday fundraiser in Raleigh for a group that's hoping to wrest control of the Wake County school board away from the Republican majority.

The stated goal of the fundraiser for the Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC is to benefit Wake school board candidates "who support high quality public schools for all children." The PAC was formed in 2009 and unsuccessfully ran a television attack ad against Republican-backed school board candidates.

The PAC was formed by Dean Debnam, president of the Democratic-leaning polling firm of Public Policy Polling. PPP has recently conducted surveys on Wake school issues for what the firm says is a private client.

Falls Lake has a deadline for its cleanup rules, and some other protections coming on line sooner, thanks in part to a legislative end run by Wake County Sen. Josh Stein.

In its next-to-last vote of the session, the state Senate approved an amended version of S 1020, into which Stein had incorporated language from another bill that remains in House-Senate conference until next year.

S 1020, which Stein sponsored, sets Jan. 15, 2011 as deadline for the Division of Water Quality to deliver a "nutrient management strategy" for approval by the state Environmental Management Commission. The deadline had been July 1 of this year.

Those rules will remain subject to approval by the state Rules Review Commission and possibly the General Assembly; however, the DWQ rules will take temporary effect and remain the law until they are formally approved and/or amended.

The bill also gives the EMC authority to deny any new "nutrient-loading" permits after July 1, 2010; adds protection for stream-buffer zones; and establishes erosion-control measures in the Falls watershed that take effect in January 2010.

Stein, on his way to some time off his legislative duty, said he was pleased.

S 1020's provisions for Falls Lake were included in H 1099, a bill that included several unrelated, and controversial, provisions regarding other parts of the state. With different versions of H 1099 passed by the Senate and House, legislative conferees were unable to reconcile their differences before the Senate recessed this afternoon.

A bill setting a Jan. 15, 2011 deadline for draft regulations to clean and protect Falls Lake won approval by the state Senate's environment committee this morning.

The bill also provides for temporary regulations to take effect on the same date, and strengthened erosion-control measures taking effect Dec. 1 of this year.

Wake County Sen. Josh Stein said the much-revised bill, H 1099, is a "win-win" proposition, giving the state Division of Water Quality the extra time it wanted to devise a pollution-reduction plan while providing interim protection for the lake that provides 435,000 Wake County residents with drinking water.

The bill is due for a hearing by the Senate finance committee before going to the floor for a vote. While an earlier version passed the state House in May, due to subsequent revisions a final form must be settled in conference and approved by both houses.

Stein said both Durham and Raleigh had "signed off" on the version of H 1099 heard this morning. The two communities had previously favored different deadlines for the permanent rules, which were ordered by legislative action in 2005 and originally due for Environmental Management Commission review in 2008.

Recent findings by the state water-quality division indicate Falls
is more polluted than rule-makers expected, particularly the Durham
County arm west of Interstate 85.

More than 50 percent of water samples from three western sites
exceeded pollution levels allowed by federal clean-water standards; the
rate at an Ellerbe Creek site was 84 percent.

"The western side of the lake is in poor condition," Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said Tuesday.