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Nutrient Pollution Chokes a River.
Algae growth, fueled by excess nutrients from an upstream hog farm, clogs a tributary to the Neuse. News & Observer photo by Roger Winstead.
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One hog produces three times the waste a person does. That means that in one year, the hogs in North Carolina produce 2.5 tons of feces and urine per person. That's a lot of hog waste!
The current method to dispose of all this hog waste is primitive. Unlike human sewage, which is treated and disinfected, hog waste is collected in open-air pits (called waste lagoons), where it is minimally treated then sprayed on land.
Managing so much hog waste using this method poses serious impact to people and the environment:
- Polluted soils, rivers, and shorelines. Hog waste contains large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients which can cause excess algae growth, rob the water of
oxygen, and kill fish when too much is present. Hog waste pollutes North
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Fish kills, such as this one in the Lower Neuse,
are one of the effects of nutrient pollution.
News & Observer photo by Roger Winstead.
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Carolina's waterways and soils through waste spills, leaking waste lagoons, and run-off from fields where waste is sprayed.
- Air pollution. Huge quantities of ammonia nitrogen escape into the air from hog operations and come back down on waters and soils downwind. Preliminary analyses
indicate that hog factories pour more nitrogen pollution through the air alone into North Carolina estuaries than all of the discharges
from municipal waste water treatment plants and industrial factories combined! (Rudek, 1997). Other studies have
found that air pollution from hog factories can cause respiratory illnesses in neighbors living up to two miles away (Donham, 1998).
- Contaminated groundwater and drinking wells. Leaking waste lagoons and runoff from sprayfields can contaminate groundwater. Recent state analyses found abnormally high levels of nitrates in 10% of the drinking wells near hog and chicken operations (Rudo, 1998).
- Odor Pollution. Horrible odors from hog factories can destroy neighbors' quality of life. No one makes these problems more clear than the neighbors themselves, who you
can meet later on this tour.
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Learn more about the environmental impacts of hog factories.
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