EPA Officials To Visit NC Hog Farms July 31 - August 3

Twelve representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will tour North Carolina hog farms July 31 – August 3 for a first-hand look at new technologies and systems for managing the large volumes of waste associated with swine operations. The visit is being coordinated by the North Carolina office of Environmental Defense and Frontline Farmers, who formed a partnership in Spring 2006 to help hog farmers move away from traditional lagoons to cleaner waste management systems. The tour is a unique opportunity for media representatives to see how technology and innovation are changing the future of hog farming.

 

Monday, July 31

2 pm. Sarem Farms in Gates County. Owner Bundy Lane discusses energy production and making liquid fuel from hog waste.

 

Tuesday, August 1

8:30 am. Little Creek Hog Farms, Ayden. Chuck Stokes explains the water treatment technology and environmental management systems on his farm.

1:00 pm. Moore Brothers Farm, Jones County. Phil Moore describes the waste treatment system on his farm.

6:30 pm. Duplin County Agricultural Center, Kenansville. EPA representatives meet with area livestock producers for a question and answer session.

 

Wednesday, August 2

8:30 am. Warsaw. Landscape nursery owner Dean Hardiston talks about how hog waste can be used as fertilizer.

2:00 pm. Robbins. Bob Binkley with NatureWorks Organics demonstrates how worm composting can treat hog waste.

 

Thursday, August 3

10:00 am. Raleigh. NC State University’s Lake Wheeler research site, home of the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center.

 

Dan Whittle, Senior Attorney, NC Office of Environmental Defense, Raleigh

Joe Rudek, Senior Scientist, NC Office of Environmental Defense, Raleigh

Chuck Stokes, Co-founder, Frontline Farmers, Ayden

For more information and tour directions, contact Georgette Shepherd, NC Communications Director, Environmental Defense, 919-881-2927 (office), 919-880-8033 (cell) or gshepherd@environmentaldefense.org.

 

For the past decade there has been a moratorium in North Carolina on new and expanded hog operations to allow time to develop alternatives to the lagoon and sprayfield systems currently used to treat waste. A six-year, $17 million research project at NC State University identified five alternative systems for managing hog waste that can replace lagoons and sprayfields. The new technologies do a significantly better job of reducing odor and air pollution and of protecting water quality than traditional lagoon and sprayfield systems. 

 

On July 31, 12 representatives from EPA’s air quality, water quality and agriculture divisions will begin a four-day tour of NC hog farms to see how innovative technologies are being integrated into the daily business of farming. Farmers will show how their farms can produce extra revenue from waste byproducts, such as energy generation, fertilizer, soil amendments, compost and related products. On August 1, the EPA will hold a listening session open to all North Carolina livestock producers.

 

Last spring the North Carolina office of Environmental Defense and Frontline Farmers developed a voluntary program to help hogs farmers change traditional lagoons to new systems. This Early Adoption Program will put cleaner waste management systems on between 50 and 100 hog farms in North Carolina. Ultimately, the program willreduce the costs of new technologies so that they are affordable for all hog farmers. The program will be open to individual farmers who volunteer to replace their open-air lagoons with technologies that meet environmental standards established by the NC General Assembly in 1998 and further refined by university researchers. Farmers who volunteer to participate will be eligible for substantial financial assistance to defray the costs of better waste management systems.

 

In addition to a cleaner environment and better health for farmers and their neighbors, new waste systems will ensure a profitable future for North Carolina’s hog farmers and the businesses that rely on the state’s swine industry.

 

More information is available at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/nchogs.