Weather.co
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Forecast
  • Weather News
  • Analysis
  • Climate Change
  • Videos
77 °f
New York
80 ° Fri
79 ° Sat
77 ° Sun
76 ° Mon
SUBSCRIBE
Weather.co
  • Forecast
  • Weather News
  • Analysis
  • Climate Change
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Weather.co
No Result
View All Result
Home Climate Change

Video: Aerial Detectives Dive Deep Into North Carolina’s Hog and Poultry Waste Problem

January 9, 2022
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0 0
A A
0

Conditions were optimal for an overflight on a bright, sunny November day in New Bern, a riverfront city that was North Carolina’s first state capital and the birthplace of Pepsi. Larry Baldwin and Rick Dover from the Riverkeeper Alliance, an international non-profit focused on clean drinking water, sat next a small Cessna aircraft, discussing their flight plans before taking off. 

Baldwin’s mission was to fly over eastern North Carolina—host to an increasing number of industrial-scale hog and poultry barns, often crowded right next to one another, to collect evidence of the waste being discharged into nearby creeks and waterways, which could threaten neighboring communities with air and water contamination.

Baldwin and his Riverkeeper colleagues across the state have been conducting airborne sorties in chartered private planes for years to document hog or poultry waste leaking into watersheds. Baldwin would snap pictures in order to supplement ongoing investigations into livestock operators he suspected of illegally contaminating water sources with waste from open pits full of hog urine and feces. 

“These Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, are spread over large areas, mostly in rural North Carolina, and it’s not easy to discover a violation from the road,” Baldwin said. “That is why we have to get into these small planes to see from above if a swine or poultry facility is committing a violation.”

Baldwin said that flight records are the best way of obtaining evidence of violations by CAFO operators and possible illegal waste management practices. Also, flights can be used to monitor the growing proliferation of large-scale hog- and poultry operations in areas with low-income people of color.

“The most typical pollutants found in air surrounding CAFOs are ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and particulate matter,” according to a report from the National Association of Local Boards of Health, “all of which have varying human health risks.”

Larry Baldwin, CAFO coordinator at Waterkeeper Alliance, discusses flight plans with Rick Dover, before overhead flight to spot CAFOs concentrations and potential violations. Credit: Aman Azhar

A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences attributed 95 premature deaths annually in North Carolina’s Sampson County, and 83 such deaths in its Duplin County, to the fine particulate air pollution caused, in part, by ammonia emissions from hog operations. According to Duke University research, hog farms are particularly problematic in minority neighborhoods. These communities face a variety of health problems, including anemia and infant deaths, kidney disease, and septicemia. 

Civil rights activists have pointed out for years long-standing environmental problems associated with the continued use of lagoon and sprayfield system, an outdated waste management method in which untreated urine and feces are stored and periodically sprayed onto nearby farms as fertilizer. 

Unregulated Turkey and Chicken Operations Add to Contamination

The rapidly growing poultry industry, which is largely unknown and unregulated, is adding to the problem. The state’s Department of Environmental Quality does not even have information on the location or waste disposal practices of these industrial-scale chicken and turkey barns. 

Commercial poultry farms produce more waste laden with nitrogen and phosphorus than the state’s massive commercial hog farms but need no operating permits, face no requirement to submit waste management plans to the DEQ and can only be inspected if someone in the community complains about their operations.

Nutrient pollution from the over-application of nitrogen and phosphorus in animal manure and chemical fertilizers is considered one of the country’s most widespread and costly environmental problems, causing algae blooms that kill fish, harm aquatic habitats and sicken humans with elevated toxin concentrations and bacterial growth. 

Communities are left to manage their own affairs due to the absence of enforcement action and regulatory controls. Waterkeepers try to fill in the gaps by monitoring water quality and pollution from CAFOs.

“We combine aerial monitoring with on-the-ground investigation including testing ground water to assess if there are elevated levels of nutrients or harmful bacteria in the water body near the suspected hog or chicken facility,” Baldwin explained. The DEQ is notified if there are elevated levels of pollution. 

Baldwin said that the state regulator failed to take any action against violators despite evidence of illegal water discharge based on extensive water testing. “The DEQ does not have the resources to undertake independent investigation to detect a violation nor would they admit our findings because it’s done by a third party,” he said.

Keep Environmental Journalism Alive

ICN provides award-winning coverage of climate free of charge and without advertising. To continue, we rely on donations from readers like yourself.

Donate Now

You will be redirected to ICN’s donation partner.

 Josh Kastrinsky, a DEQ public information officer, responded that the department “investigates complaints involving animal feeding operations to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations for the protection of the environment and public health.”

Kastrinsky said the department’s Division of Water Resources “may consider third party evidence as a part of their investigation but could not proceed with an enforcement action based only on that data without verification by inspectors.” The Division of Water Resources, he said, investigates complaints alleging immediate threats to the environment or human safety or health within 24 hours. It conducts site visits within five days for other complaints.

The Waterkeepers inform the public about environmental health and public health risks that CAFOs pose. “Hopefully, this will lead to increased public pressure that can get the state to do the right thing,” Baldwin said. 

Since years, environmental groups have joined forces with communities near poultry and swine operations to demand that policymakers create a better waste management program than the outdated lagoon or sprayfield systems currently in place.

Instead, the Farm Act of 2021 was passed by the North Carolina state legislature last July. This requires the state regulator in North Carolina to issue a general permit within a calendar year to allow interested swine operations the ability to capture methane gas from hog waste and convert it into biogas.

The DEQ has already issued four biogas permits for hog facilities in eastern North Carolina under the Align Renewable Natural Gas (or Align RNG) program. This program, worth $500 million, is a joint venture between Smithfield Foods Inc. and Dominion Energy Inc., which began in 2018.

Two North Carolina civil right groups filed a complaint to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding the approval of the state’s plan to produce biogas despite concerns that it will increase air and water polluting. 

DEQ must complete the general permitting process by July 1, 2022.   

Aman Azhar

Aman Azhar

Freelancer

Aman Azhar is a multi-skilled journalist with more than 10 years experience in international broadcast journalism. Aman Azhar worked previously as a multimedia producer and broadcast journalist for VOA News, BBC World Service and other international news organizations. He reported from New York, London and Islamabad, the United Arab Emirates, and New York. He holds a graduate degree in Anthropology of Media from University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and an MA in Political Science from the University of the Punjab, and is the recipient of the Chevening scholarship from the UK government and an academic scholarship for graduate studies from the Australian government. In 2005, he won a grant to attend a doctoral research seminar on global media policy research jointly organized by the University of Oxford’s St. Catherine’s College and University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. He also received the Franklin Award, and a citation by the U.S. State Department, for his outstanding reporting about Pakistan. His reporting for Inside Climate News focuses on environmental justice issues facing politically disenfranchised communities and low-income communities in the United States. 

Source: Inside Climate News

ShareTweetShareShareShareSend

Related Posts

Climate Change

Twitter diplomacy and Brazil’s climate election – Climate Weekly

August 19, 2022
Climate Change

The New US Climate Law Will Reduce Carbon Emissions and Make Electricity Less Expensive, Economists Say

August 19, 2022
Climate Change

Brazil’s climate election: Lula and Bolsonaro vie over deforestation

August 18, 2022
Climate Change

A Natural Ecology Lab Along the Delaware River in the First State to Require K-12 Climate Education

August 18, 2022
Climate Change

Laredo Confronts Drought and Water Shortage Without a Wealth of Options

August 18, 2022
Climate Change

Study: Pennsylvania Children Who Live Near Fracking Wells Have Higher Leukemia Risk

August 17, 2022
London, GB
2:35 pm, Aug 19
76°F
L: 70° H: 79°
Feels like 75.22 °F broken clouds
Wind gusts: 9 mph
UV Index: 0
Precipitation: 0 inch
Visibility: 10 km
Sunrise: 5:52 am
Sunset: 8:16 pm
Humidity 44 %
Pressure1014 mb
Wind 9 mph

Recommended Stories

Report: Produce prescriptions, financial incentives help poor eat more fresh fruit and vegetables

January 19, 2022

Potential Nor’easter & Severe Weather Update! – Video

February 6, 2022

Inside Beijing’s Olympic Bubble: Robots, Swabs and a Big Gamble

February 2, 2022

Popular Stories

  • An end date to higher fertilizer prices is unknown, AFBF economists say

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How High Oil Prices Threaten a California Plastic Container Business

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Skyrocketing fertilizer prices gouge farmer profits; groups blame consolidation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ukraine monitors price increases for goods, planting challenges as war continues

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A Hotter World

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Weather.co

Weather.co, is a dedicated weather news website, we provide the latest news about weather and climate change from all around the world.

LEARN MORE »

Recent Posts

  • Twitter diplomacy and Brazil’s climate election – Climate Weekly
  • The New US Climate Law Will Reduce Carbon Emissions and Make Electricity Less Expensive, Economists Say
  • Brazil’s climate election: Lula and Bolsonaro vie over deforestation

Sections

  • Analysis
  • Climate Change
  • Coronavirus
  • Farming
  • News
  • Videos

The Latest Weather News From All Around The World

Be the first to know latest important news & events directly to your inbox.

By signing up, I agree to our TOS and Privacy Policy.

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact

© 2021 Weather.co - All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Forecast
  • Weather News
  • Analysis
  • Climate Change
  • Videos

© 2021 Weather.co - All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
DON’T MISS OUT!
Subscribe To Newsletter
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
Stay Updated
Give it a try, you can unsubscribe anytime.
close-link
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.