Industry Mole Exposed After Deceiving Concerned Citizens

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Asphalt plants are unpopular, especially when they’re located near residential areas, but one story in Clemmons, North Carolina took an unexpected turn.

In August 2026, residents contacted me about a stranger who had started a grassroots fight against a proposed asphalt plant, operated by Maymead, that would be built nearby. 

The facility would emit 7 tons of health-harming particulate matter, 4.8 tons of cancer-causing formaldehyde, a half ton of cancer-causing benzene and many other air pollutants each year. Few residents knew about the proposal until late June, when dozens of residents received an emailed action alert about the plant from an unknown sender.

The sender identified himself as Chris Sanderson. He began visiting neighbors in their homes, attending government meetings, speaking with elected officials and urging residents to call Maymead in protest, emails show.

But facts about the man didn’t add up, residents said. Sanderson had emailed a document to one of the residents, who examined its underlying data and found the man’s real name was Christopher Hopkins.

And Christopher Hopkins worked for a consulting firm, Land Use Strategies, that offers public relations and grassroots organizing services to companies whose projects are often controversial: data centers, landfills, energy and mining. 

My investigation, which included publicly available documents, found that Hopkins had a history of working for firms that do “defensive” work: Opposing a project not for environmental reasons but to quash the competition.

Outside a county commissioners meeting I asked Hopkins about his true identity and showed him a photograph from his LinkedIn page. He denied it was him, yet refused to provide identification verifying his name.

I repeatedly contacted Hopkins and Land Use Strategies for comment. Hopkins never replied. However, on the day the story was scheduled to publish, his employer responded, saying that he was no longer with the company.

About two weeks later, Maymead’s attorney filed a legal complaint in superior court, notifying Hopkins and Land Use Strategies that it intended to sue them over allegations of civil conspiracy, fraud and market manipulation.

As of this writing, the case is pending.

Neighborhood residents told me they felt betrayed and invaded by Hopkins’ actions, and that the situation created suspicion and made people wonder who they could trust. When schemes like Hopkins’ go undetected and without penalty, residents with genuine concerns about their community become unwitting foot soldiers in a turf war.