Fowl play in Nash.

• Position: Eastern

Laurel, Miss.-based Sanderson Farms Inc., the nation's fourth-largest chicken 1 processor, announced in August it will open a hatchery in southern Nash County, the first step in a $91.4 million project that is expected to add a processing plant and field to spray poultry waste within five years. The development has drawn fierce opposition from some residents in Nash and Wilson counties who believe the plant will pollute the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse river basins and drain drinking-water supplies. Sanderson promises 1,100 jobs and contracts for more than 100 local farms in a part of the state where the jobless rate is double digits. The county gave it a 146-acre tract valued at $1.2 million for the project.

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Another Great Migration?

Between 2000 and 2010, two metropolitan and two micropolitan areas in the region ranked among the nation's top five in largest decrease in share of population that's black.

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Estimated annual contract payments $28 million to farmers Projected chicks born at hatchery 1.3 million each week Estimated gallons of process wastewater 1.4 million created per day 2000 2010 METROS POP. #OF BLACK POP. #OF BLACK BLACKS % OF BLACKS % OF POP. POP. New Orleans 1,316,510 491,775 37.4 1,167,764 397,095 34.0 Charleston, 549,033 169,079 30.8 664,607 184,019 27.7 S.C. Wilmington 274,532 47,408 17.3 362,315 51,467 14.2 Jacksonville 150,355 27,790 18.5 177,772 27,672 15.6 Myrtle Beach, 196,629 30,468 15.5 269,291 36,202 13.4 S.C. MICROS Hilton Head 141,615...