Inspectors found flooding of some manure lagoons in eastern North Carolina, but their aerial inspection “did not show any confirmed breaches or overtopping,” says the state Department of Environmental Quality. Environmental groups say the floods, a result of Hurricane Matthew, are a severe test of whether large-scale livestock farms, producing millions of hogs and broiler chickens a year, can keep animal waste from mixing with storm water.
“We are cautiously optimistic that North Carolina’s swine operations have survived the storm without experiencing the catastrophic damage that we saw during Hurricane Floyd,” said DEQ secretary Donald van der Vaart in a statement Sunday. There are 11 reports of flooded lagoons. The DEQ will make field visits as road conditions allow.
Fewer than 3,000 hogs died during the hurricane, said the North Carolina Pork Council, a farm group. By comparison, Hurricane Floyd in 1999 killed 21,474 hogs, flooded 50 lagoons and breached six. “This shows that the proactive steps we have taken since Hurricane Floyd are working,” said the Pork Council, which said the Waterkeeper Alliance “is exploiting this tragic situation to push their anti-farm agenda.”
North Carolina’s agriculture sector, in the early stages of harvesting cotton, peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, “took a beating from Hurricane Matthew,” said the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The storm hit 48 counties that generate 71 percent of cash farm receipts for the state. Initial reports said 1.9 million birds, mostly broiler chickens, died as a result of the storm. The figure was expected to rise.
There are more than 2,100 hog farms in the state. The largest hog processing plant in the country is located in Tar Heel, NC.
Environmentalists have argued repeatedly that the large confinement farms generate unmanageable amounts of waste and spread foul odors. “The presence of mass-scale swine and poultry lots and processing plants in a sandy floodplain — a region once dotted by small tobacco farms — has long posed a difficult dilemma for a state where swine and poultry represent billions of dollars a year for the economy,” said the Washington Post. One “riverkeeper,” Rick Dove, said he saw more than a dozen flooded lagoons on the lower Neuse River.
After Hurricane Floyd, the state bought out 42 hog farms on the floodplain and removed 103 lagoons. Other lagoons were moved to higher ground or strengthened against flooding, said the Post. Michelle Nowlin, a Duke professor of environmental law, told the Post that state officials should require farms to “get these animals out of the floodplain.”
When a manure lagoon is breached, the contents of the lagoon are washed away. When a lagoon is flooded, a diluted portion of the waste in lagoon is carried away and most of the material remains on site.