North Carolina seems likely to ban new waste lagoons on hog farms, raise standards for them

The North Carolina House voted without dissent yesterday to prohibit new waste lagoons on hog farms, a source of much water pollution, and set higher standards for new waste disposal systems. The House made changes in a bill passed by the Senate, which will now consider the changes and seems likely to concur.

"Lawmakers are moving to pass the legislation before a 10-year-old moratorium on construction of new hog farms expires in September," reports Wade Rawlins of The News & Observer of Raleigh. "The measure fell short of a phase-out of existing lagoons that environmental groups initially sought. But it does provide aid to farmers to help them voluntarily convert to more environmentally friendly waste disposal systems. . . . Farms with existing waste lagoons could continue to use them and, in certain circumstances, could replace failing lagoons that pose an imminent hazard with new ones. Environmentalists said that change weakened the bill. But the hog industry contended that farmers could be put out of business otherwise."

Rawlins notes that North Carolina is the nation's No. 2 hog producer, and writes, "State leaders have been struggling with how to reduce the water and air pollution caused by the factory farms, which produce huge volumes of manure and urine that sit in open-air waste ponds. While the solids are broken down by bacteria, the liquid waste is sprayed on fields as fertilizer. During rains or floods, the waste can wash into streams, degrading water quality and promoting conditions that can cause fish kills." (Read more)