the rise of slime
North Carolina Hog Vigil
The vigil included a hog factory model with a 40 gallon lagoon that pumped real waste, exposing the legislature to the awful smell that North Carolinians must bear.
Rick Dove
By Heather Jacobs, Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper and Larry Baldwin, Lower Neuse Riverkeeper
Neuse Riverkeeper
The authors, Rick Dove (pictured) and hundreds of others spent 51 hours, from 3:00 p.m. on July 19 to 6:00 a.m. on June 21 in front of the North Carolina legislature speaking out on the need to ban hog waste lagoons.
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Waterkeeper Magazine Fall 2007
»There are 10 million hogs in North Carolina being raised “industrial style.” Each day, those 10 million hogs produce the equivalent waste of 100 million people. That’s all the citizens in North Carolina, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Hampshire and North Dakota combined. The hog industry uses an outhouse system of waste disposal. Fecal waste, urine and wash-down water from swine operations are stored in open waste pits called “lagoons” (sorry no bathing beauties anywhere near these lagoons). When the waste pits fill up, the industrial swine producer sprays the untreated waste onto fields under the pretext of growing crops. But this waste runs off fields directly to our wetlands, streams, creeks and rivers. The Pamlico-Tar River watershed is home to approximately 500,000 hogs, and in the Neuse watershed the number is two million hogs. These factories apply waste from the state’s 2,300 waste lagoons to the ground in a liquid form under the pretext of raising crops. The runoff pollutes our waters and creates a substantial human health risk to our communities. The fight to rid the state of these open cesspools dates back to the early 1990s when fish began dying by the billions (see Fish Able, the spring 2007 issue of Waterkeeper). Today the fight continues. On June 19, North Carolina Waterkeepers and a broad coalition of religious, environmental and labor organizations brought the fight to the lawn of the state General Assembly. More than 125 people pitched camp in front of the legislative buildings in the state capital of Raleigh. We had simple demands: legislation to permanently ban hog waste lagoons and sprayfields, and safe drinking water for people whose groundwater has been contaminated by hog waste. We stayed 51 hours, for the entire legislative session. We brought with us a model of a hog factory with a working lagoon and 40 gallons of real hog waste. When the state discovered that we planned to have hog waste on the lawn, they sent a security official who informed us that if we spilled even one drop, it would be considered hazardous waste. The HazMat team would be called in to do an emergency cleanup and we would be fined. He provided no answer when asked why hog waste that is called fertilizer elsewhere is considered hazardous material in Raleigh. The vigil didn’t accomplish all of our policy goals. Back-room deals lead to weak legislation that will essentially allow waste lagoons to remain Waterkeepers and community groups viewed the legislation as a promise unfulfilled. Governor Easley himself has gone back on a promise he made www.waterkeeper.org
