Sample letter for you to edit for your hometown newspaper. By getting your letter published, you can raise public awareness and encourage action to solve the problems from hog factories. You can download this letter to your word processing program, revise it, print it out, and either email to your local newspaper or send via regular post. To the Editor: It's time for North Carolina to clean up hog lagoons, and it's fair to demand that the pork industry do its part in paying for improvements. The primitive systems used to dispose of hog waste fail to protect public health, the environment, and neighboring communities. But there are solutions to these problems, if Governor Hunt and the Legislature have to the will to lead. What should North Carolina do_ We must require all hog factories to meet specific performance standards that eliminate pollution of groundwater, rivers and streams, and the air. Any new hog operation must meet these standards, and any existing hog operation must replace lagoons and sprayfields with technologies that also meet these standards. Right now, North Carolina law does not require such standards at all. Governor Hunt has proposed a good plan to convert hog lagoons and switch to waste systems that truly protect public health and the environment. North Carolina must adopt his plan. We expect high standards from other industries. It's time for the factory pork industry to do its fair share in North Carolina. Your name, address, phone number What should performance standards be_