Pig Farms In NC Harming Waterways

Ineffective waste management at pig farms in North Carolina may be polluting local waterways.

A battle is brewing over this problem in eastern North Carolina, according to Environmental Health News:"Health and environmental groups continue to pressure the state, the second leading pork producing state behind Iowa, to more strictly regulate large pig farms."

"Meanwhile evidence continues to mount of the industry's impact in the region: A study published in January concluded that streams near large industrial farms in eastern North Carolina are full of pig poop bacteria," the news report said.

According to the study, published in Science of the Total Environment, "Results suggest diffuse and overall poor sanitary quality of surface waters where swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) density is high."

Steve Wing, a professor at the University of North Carolina who co-authored the research, told Environmental Health News: "You have evidence of pig-specific bacteria in surface waters, next to industrial swine operations."

"The farms generate so much waste that it would be too expensive to transport via pipeline or a truck, Wing said. So manure is dispersed via big pumps and sprayers that act like a lawn sprinkler,' Wing said, and spread the slurry across fields," the report said.

Environmentalists are pushing for stricter regulations on pig farms, but state regulators are not entirely convinced that is necessary. A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources questioned the study results.

“The information presented provides an indication of overall water quality in these [waters]; however, it is not an indication of a discharge of waste,” Drew Elliot, communications director for the department, wrote in an email after sharing the study with state water quality experts," he said, per the report.

Nevertheless, the issue remains alive in the activist community.

Naeema Muhammad, a co-director and community organizer at the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, is among those fighting for stricter rules.

“People just can’t ignore this,” he said, per the report. “The air stinks, the water is contaminated and property values are depleted."

According to a page on Care2, a news and social platform for activists, CAFOs pose a major threat to water quality.

“To have less pollution and begin cleaning up the lakes, we must have fewer factory farms and begin returning to a more traditional system of agriculture where animals are treated like more than mere production units. Our water, the animals, our health and our rural communities will all be better off for it,” said Bill Miller, Humane Society advisory council member and vice president of the Ohio Farmers Union, in a Humane Society press release.

For more on source water contamination, visit Water Online's Source Water Contamination Solution Center.