Post-Floyd Emergency Hog Plan Too Risky, Say Environmentalists

In a letter sent today to North Carolina Governor James Hunt, the North Carolina Environmental Defense Fund (NCEDF) and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), along with six other environmental groups, criticized the recently-announced Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) emergency animal waste policy in the aftermath of Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd. The groups also asked the Governor to call upon Smithfield Foods and other major pork companies to take steps immediately to remove animals from farms that are temporarily unable to manage waste generated since the September hurricanes.

The emergency policy, which was announced last week, “defers tackling the root of the problem and allows swine operations to continue to generate waste they cannot handle,” the groups said in the letter.

“More than 1,000 swine lagoons will likely be unable to store waste through the coming months, yet the short-sighted emergency plan allows hog waste to be applied to lands that are already saturated or that otherwise cannot absorb significant amounts of animal waste,” said Dan Whittle, an EDF attorney. “If left unchanged, the emergency plan will cause significant additional damage to our state’s surface waters and groundwater, including drinking water supplies.”

“North Carolinians bore the brunt of two major storms and the ensuing floods and contamination. We simply cannot afford to make matters even worse by perpetuating the pollution and prolonging the cleanup,” said Whittle.

The groups called on Governor Hunt to: