N Carolina hog farmers spray feces around black communities

NPR reports, in a correction to their 9-11-18 story, that farmers that plan to empty the holding ponds in anticipation of heavy rains by increasing the spraying of waste on fields, will not be allowed to spray the waste after all. “A previous Web version of this story said that a state of emergency in North Carolina allows farmers to spray more manure on more fields. This is not the case. The state of emergency does temporarily remove restrictions on the size and weight of trucks carrying livestock, poultry or animal feed”. I suspect, that emptying the ponds would be guaranteed to enter flood waters and that officials hope that the retaining walls of the lagoon will contain the toxins.

Here’s the really bad scenario: Water starts overflowing and erodes the lagoon wall, causing a wall to collapse, spreading animal waste across the landscape and into rivers.

Rising rivers could also inundate some low-lying lagoons and hog houses. About 60 of them lie within what the state of North Carolina considers the 100-year-flood plain. Animals in those houses may need to be evacuated for the flood waters rise.

There used to be more swine in the flood plain, but after Hurricane Floyd, in 1999, the state bought out some hog farmers in low-lying areas and shut them down.

Some lagoons flooded again during Hurricane Matthew, two years ago, but lagoon walls didn’t collapse.

Those lagoons are full of nothing but feces and urine. In an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now in 2017, David Fries, the filmmaker that exposed the factory farms that spray the waste  “on nearby fields” (see video below) spoke to “Steve Wing, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Public Health” who described what happens at these farms. As in most environmental crimes, the victims are usually people of color and the poor.

STEVE WING: The waste falls through the floors. It’s flushed out into an open pit, like a cesspool. It’s easy for a big hog operation to have as much waste as a medium-sized city. Of course, the pit will fill up, so it has to be emptied. And they’re emptied by spraying the liquid waste.

MARK DEVRIES: Yes, you heard that right.

STEVE WING: If you’re familiar with a garden sprayer, they’re gigantic versions of that. So they’re making droplets and fine mists out of this liquid waste. And that can drift downwind into the neighboring communities.

AMY GOODMAN: Residents living in the area of the spray complain of odor so bad it limits their ability to be outdoors, and adverse health effects. House Bill 467, or the Agriculture and Forestry Nuisance Remedies bill, was introduced by Republican State Representative Jimmy Dixon, a longtime farmer, who has received campaign contributions from the hog industry. Speaking at a hearing about the legislation, Dixon said, quote, “These claims are at best enormous exaggerations and at worst outright lies. Is there some odor? Yes. But I would like you to close your eyes and imagine how ham and sausage and eggs and fried chicken smell,” he said. The legislation comes as a class action suit brought by nearly 500 primarily African-American residents of eastern North Carolina seek financial compensation from Murphy-Brown, the state’s largest hog producer. The lawsuits have now moved to federal court.