After two rounds of public comment and stakeholder input, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Friday released the final version of the swine general permit, which regulates the primitive lagoon and spray system used to manage animal waste at large hog farms in North Carolina.
Environmental groups and affected citizens have long called for an overhaul to the antiquated waste-management system. The final permit, which will be in effect for five years, contains a number of improvements, but falls short of addressing concerns expressed by environmental groups. It also likely falls short of addressing the concerns that have led to extensive and ongoing nuisance lawsuits by neighbors.
The permit’s most significant positive change is a requirement for groundwater monitoring at farms with waste lagoons or waste storage facilities in the 100-year floodplain, which may present the greatest risk of groundwater contamination. It’s also the first time the state has required groundwater monitoring of an animal waste system. Data from the groundwater monitoring will be available to the public.
Lagoon-and-spray waste treatment involves straight-piping raw feces and urine from hog barns to large open pits where it stays until sprayed onto nearby fields.
North Carolina has had a moratorium on new large-scale swine operations since 1997. New operations can be permitted only if they meet performance standards set out in the terms of an agreement negotiated by Smithfield and the state. No new systems have been judged to meet the agreement’s standards.\
Erin Carey, Coastal Programs Coordinator for the N.C. Sierra Club, issued the following statement:
“The permit represents the first step forward in a number of years in how the state regulates these operations, but many more changes are needed to address the adverse impacts of the current hog waste management system on communities and the environment. We appreciate that DEQ will now require groundwater monitoring and has added some transparency to reporting. But more needs to be done to adequately protect water quality in North Carolina. Long-standing concerns about water quality impacts have been heightened in a time of increased risk of flooding due to stronger, heavier hurricanes and other storms. Open pit waste storage remains a serious threat to the environment and the well-being of hog farm neighbors.”