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It can be done!
THE PROBLEM
North Carolina still has no plan to solve, once and for all, the serious problems associated with factory hog operations. Despite
ample evidence of the threats posed by factory hog farms, North Carolina still has not adopted standards for eliminating or even reducing air pollution, groundwater contamination, and odor
from hog operations. Get the Facts on Hog Pollution.
Factory hog farms store hog waste in open-air pits (lagoons) and then
spray the untreated waste onto nearby lands (sprayfields). This primitive system is used to treat the 19 million tons of hog waste produced annually in North Carolina, and it simply does not adequately protect the state's communities, public health, and environment. Decisive action is needed to ensure that new and existing factory farms improve their waste treatment practices.
THE SOLUTION
North Carolina needs to adopt an effective, fair, and feasible set of measures that will protect the state's environment, public
health, and economy. At minimum, these measures should do the following:
- Require that all new hog factories meet permanent performance standards to achieve environmental and public health goals.
- Require that the hog industry clean up and properly close the more than 700 abandoned lagoons in eastern NC.
- Require that all existing hog factories meet these performance standards, and that hog factories using open-air lagoons and
aerial sprayfields replace them with more effective waste management systems.
- Require that hog farmers and the large industry producers (who own the hogs) share responsibility and liability for complying
with environmental laws.
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