Remediating a bootleg ground

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JHZR2

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Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Power Systems Engineer
I showed a picture in the NEC section of a true bootleg ground at the first outlet.

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But I found another circuit that had a cut ground conductor at the panel yet showed potential at the hot to ground on an outlet. Unfortunately this circuit is more complex (more connected loads)

I chased the circuit, and no outlet is jumpered or wired wrong. Yet there is continuity between neutral and ground despite the last length of NM having the ground cut.

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I finally chased the issue to a part of the circuit where only a few lighting loads are connected, with power coming from one outlet in a junction box to those lighting loads. When I disconnected that conductor, the issue went away. Thing is, chasing the point of the issue down is much harder. There are no more outlets from the point that I tracked the continuity of neutral to ground, it is just a few lights.

So what is the best remediation approach? Pull that part of the circuit and replace it with a dedicated feeder via faceless gfci to just the two wires? This way the other outlets on the circuit could have a proper ground connected and be acceptable and also completely isolated from this issue. Or would I just re-attach the ground at the last section of conductor going back to the panel and call it a day?

thanks!
 
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