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Environmental Defense
North Carolina Office
2500 Blue Ridge Road, Suite 330
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
June 1999
Table of Contents:
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Summary and Recommendations
North Carolina has more than 2,600 registered hog operations using at least one, and often more, open-air pits dug in the earth to process the waste from the state's 10 million hogs. The
most recent number of active open-air pits totaled more than 3,800, with the number of abandoned pits at nearly 550. The vast majority of these pits (often referred to as "lagoons")
are located along waterways and on lands that drain to the state's coastal waters, which have tremendous economic and ecological value for North Carolina. The coastal waters of the
Albemarle and Pamlico Estuarine System are critical to some of the nation's premiere fisheries, providing some of the best spawning and nursery grounds on the Atlantic coast.
These waters are home to recreational and commercial fishing, which are cornerstone industries of coastal economies. Coastal tourism also brings over $2 billion to the state. All
these outstanding resources and economic assets rely on a healthy environment, clean water, and clean air.
The state's hog waste lagoons, active and abandoned, threaten the environment of North Carolina and the public health of its citizens. The pork industry's current use of lagoons and
sprayfields to handle huge volumes of hog waste is woefully inadequate to protect North Carolina's landscape. Cleaning up a few of these lagoons will not solve the problem-- rather,
a complete phase-out of active and abandoned lagoons is urgently needed. The vast amount of animal waste generated by the high density of hog operations in eastern North Carolina
must be treated using safer and more efficient waste-treatment systems. The cost to convert existing facilities to improved technologies is certainly a factor; however, it should not be the
determining factor or an excuse to defer resolution of the problems. The pork industry must not be allowed to pass cleanup costs on to the people of North Carolina, many of whom are
already paying the price of foul odors, contaminated groundwater, and a lower quality of life.
The thousands of active hog waste lagoons contain more than 19 million tons of manure annually. Ample evidence shows that these lagoons contribute significantly to the pollution of
groundwater, surface water, and air. All or most of them leak to some degree. Components in the leakage can concentrate for years in the soil just below the lagoons, presenting a threat
to supplies of drinking water and to surface waters if the components are transported into the groundwater (Ham et al., 1998; Miller et al., 1976). The monitoring of wells down gradient
of some North Carolina hog farms has shown levels of nitrate that could contaminate nearby water-supply wells (Rudo, 1998; Wynne, 1999). Cumulative emissions from the current
method of treating hog waste account for nearly half of the atmospheric ammonia nitrogen emitted from all state livestock and industrial sources combined (Aneja et al., 1998).
Offensive odors also rise off the lagoons and sprayfields and travel downwind, far too often
resulting in a potential health threat and reduced quality of life for the neighbors of some of the hog operations (Schiffman, 1998; Thu et al., 1997; Wing and Wolf, 1999). The pathogens
(disease-causing bacteria) in hog waste are not sufficiently eliminated by treatment in the lagoons to adequately protect public health (Hill and Sobsey, 1998).
Some modest progress has been made in dealing with the waste problems resulting from factory pork production. For example, in 1996 the North Carolina legislature strengthened
setback distances from neighbors and streams for new operations and, in 1997, it placed a temporary moratorium on the construction of new or the expansion of existing hog farms,
pending the development of a plan to phase out anaerobic lagoons and aerial sprayfields. But the problems are far from solved for North Carolina. Indeed, when the moratorium ends on
September 1, 1999, North Carolina will still have--
- Inadequate environmental and public health performance standards for existing or new hog operations.
- No requirement for the timely cleanup of abandoned waste lagoons that pose threats to public health.
- No mandatory controls to reduce and prevent the offensive odors that emanate from hog factories (rather, only a cumbersome, complaint-driven process that promises to
take years to provide relief from intense odors for the neighbors of hog operations).
- No requirement to monitor lagoons for the leakage of pollutants and the contamination of groundwater.
- No requirement to reduce, or even monitor, the release into the atmosphere of hundreds of millions of pounds of nitrogen coming from hog operations.
It is time to solve the serious problems associated with the hog industry, once and for all. To do so, North Carolina must pursue a solutions package with at least the following:
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Adopt meaningful, permanent environmental and health-based performance standards by December 1999 for new and existing hog operations, using the innovative
technology performance goals defined in 1998 by the General Assembly in House Bill 1480.
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Maintain the moratorium on the construction of new or the expansion of existing hog operations until the conversion of existing farms is well under way. Require the
conversion of existing operations to be completed by no later than 2006.
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Strengthen the closure standards for abandoned lagoons and require that all abandoned lagoons be cleaned and closed properly within two years. Reward companies that
commit to early closure with priority for state cost-share funding.
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While new technologies are being developed and installed in existing operations, direct the state to take several inexpensive, short-term steps (used in some other
states) to reduce the impacts of unacceptable odors and airborne emissions of ammonia from hog operations.
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Require that both growers that contract to raise hogs and corporate integrators (large companies that own the hogs) share responsibility and liability for complying
with environmental laws.
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Accelerate research to identify alternative waste systems.
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