Swine farmers, hog industry turns out in force to oppose revisions to draft permits

 

2,000 words, 10-minute read

DEQ proposes stronger regulations, but waste lagoon and sprayfield system would remain status quo

Jed Arena stands in his backyard, placing most of his weight on one bent leg. A former hog farm worker for Carroll’s, Smithfield and smaller operations, he’s been fighting off a bacterial infection in his spine. About 10 years ago, well before his recent diagnosis of osteomyelitis, he contracted MRSA, a drug-resistant staph infection, that landed him in the hospital for nearly a week.

But his health problems, which may or may not stem from his 17 years in the hog industry, are farther down his list of immediate complaints.

“You can see it from here,” Arena says, pointing across a field. About a half-mile away from his property, Murphy-Brown owns and operates the 9,542-head New Colony Sow Farm in rural Tyrrell County.

“Buzzards, odor,” Arena says, listing complaints that sound familiar to those lodged in federal hog nuisance lawsuits. “And flies. I killed 20 on my TV screen. And my water turns the kitchen sink black.”

It’s too late for Arena to sue Smithfield for nuisance. Earlier this year, the legislature specifically insulated hog farms from these lawsuits by narrowing the range of circumstances under which neighbors could sue. The New Colony Sow Farm would escape any such litigation, in part because it has not been cited or penalized by state or federal environmental officials within the last three years.

“Smithfield has no regard for the community,” Arena said.

That an enormous sow farm with four open-pit waste lagoons came to be situated near swamp land is testament to the laxity of North Carolina laws. Counties have practically no zoning authority over swine farms in agricultural areas. Lacking state requirements for groundwater monitoring, as well as thorough inspections, there is little recourse for people who are concerned about the farms’ impact on the environment and public health.

One route, though, is by commenting on the industry’s waste management general permits, required by the state Department of Environmental Quality for nearly every hog farm in North Carolina. (A few farms have individual permits because they discharge into surface waters of the state. Those NPDES permits regulate the amount of pollutants the farms can discharge. General permits assume there is no discharge.)

General permits must be updated every five years. And every five years there is conflict among farmers, trade groups, environmental and social justice advocates, and state regulators about proposed requirements that would hold the industry to account.

On Tuesday night in Sampson County, more than 150 people attended a public hearing on the draft permit, which in its final form goes into effect Oct. 1, 2019. Although the assumption is that the antiquated open-air waste lagoons and spray field systems will remain the status quo, state regulators have beefed up some provisions. 

Among them are groundwater monitoring, rain breakers — systems that automatically shut off spray field systems when it rains —  daily documentation of hog deaths and disposal methods, as well as restrictions, depending on the wind, on the spraying of the hog waste. The department could also conduct surprise inspections rather than giving farms advance notice, a requirement sought by environmental justice groups. Accurately completing an odor checklist would also be a condition of the permit.

Farmers and industry representatives from Smithfield, Prestage, the Pork Council and the Farm Bureau opposed additional regulations. “We’re already well regulated,” said Chad Herring, executive director of NC Farm Families, the front group for Smithfield and the hog industry in general. He characterized many of the proposals, such as increased documentation — much of which is off-limits to the public without state intervention — as “onerous.” 

There are a few provisions that could be problematic. For example, farmers would have to stop spraying waste within four hours of the National Weather Service issuing a flash flood watch for the county where the operation is located. With advanced forecasting, those alerts can be issued days before the threat materializes, and farmers argue that this requirement would reduce the amount of time they could lower waste levels in the lagoons via spraying.

Fourth-generation farmer Marlowe Vaughn called some of the proposed requirements “downright insulting.” 

“There’s no acknowledgment of how we’ve improved and how we’ve evolved,” she said. “It’s the same conversation. People who want to tell us what to do know the least about farming.”

******

One of the industry’s main talking points is that the regulations to which it is subject are the most stringent in the nation. “The policies are already enforced,” said farmer Ada Bailey. “Just because it smells doesn’t mean it’s hurting people or the environment. Some farmers are out of compliance, but don’t treat all farmers based on them.”

However, because states have different geologic features and legal histories, that claim is difficult to prove. But even if it is true, the state’s inspection and enforcement of these laws is lax.

State regulators, either with DEQ or the Department of Agriculture, inspect the farms annually. However, the operators are given a heads-up, ostensibly to organize their records. But this also gives wayward farms the opportunity to cover their tracks. 

Policy Watch reviewed more than 100 annual compliance inspection reports for more than 30 farms and found that the visits lasted from 30 to 90 minutes. If the farms were automobiles, the total inspection time would be equivalent to between one and three oil changes. If a farm had been out of compliance, a follow-up inspection could last as long as two hours. 

However, according to a transcript from the third hog nuisance trial involving Greenwood Farms, Christine Lawson, program director of DEQ’s Animal Feeding Operations, testified that there is little if any independent verification or comparison of a farm’s year-to-year records. In the case of Greenwood, trial transcripts from July show that spray and pumping records had been falsified, but the inspector didn’t detect the discrepancies.

“How often do you think stuff like this happens?” asked plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Kaeske.

“I don’t think it’s common,” Lawson replied.

“Well is there a way for you to know?”

“The way that we know is we continue to do our compliance inspections.”

Another point made by industry and echoed by many state lawmakers and DEQ Secretary Michael Regan, is that wastewater treatment plants are responsible illegally discharging millions of gallons of sewage (some treated, some raw) into waterways. This far exceeds the amount discharged by lagoons. 

Environmental data shows that this statement is true, but needs context.

Of the 1,640 enforcement actions taken by the Division of Water Resources from October 2014 to September 2018, the majority have been levied against wastewater treatment plants, both public and private. Seventy-seven hog farms have been penalized, although several of them are repeat offenders, for a total of $300,460 in fines. That includes a $64,000 penalty assessed against the chronically deficient Lanier Farms. Over Labor Day weekend 2017, the farm discharged more than a million gallons of wastewater into the Trent River. Smithfield, facing Clean Water Act violations, closed the farm.

Wastewater treatment plants are subject to stricter federal discharge rules and monitoring requirements, which increases the likelihood that their problems will be detected. And in many cases, the failing systems are on the state’s “unit assistance list,” because they are financially insolvent. These systems are often in small towns (or even mobile home parks), where there is not enough money for improvements. 

For example, Fair Bluff has a smaller population than most hog farms — just 932 people. Its wastewater system flooded during Hurricane Florence. The town’s water and sewer system generates about $324,000 in revenue each year, according to state records. 

By comparison, the WH Group, the Chinese company that owns Smithfield, recorded operating profits of $867 million — in just the first half of 2018.

******

 

Like many neighbors of industrialized hog operations, Jed Arena is among the poorest of the poor. Since 2010, he has lived on this small plot of family land that he inherited from his mother. He heats his small, white house with wood. 

Seventy-nine percent of Tyrrell County lies within the 100-year flood plain. Although technically Arena lives just outside of the official boundary, the water table is so high that the drinking water wells are shallow. Arena said his is just 70 to 80 feet deep. Considering his black-stained sink, he could benefit not only from well testing but groundwater monitoring. The county can test his well for contaminants, cheaply or at no cost.

He is disabled and survives on less than $17,000 a year, so he can’t afford the hundreds of dollars it would cost for a comprehensive private well test. Nor can he afford to buy pallets of bottled water. But he resists inviting the county to conduct the sampling.

“I don’t trust the government,” he says. “Plus, I want them to test for everything.”

The disproportionate impact on low-income households and communities of color (Arena is white), prompted several social justice advocates at Tuesday’s meeting to speak for stronger, not weaker language in the draft permits. 

They called for several terms of a federal civil rights settlement between DEQ and environmental justice and community groups to be included in the permit. That includes greater transparency and the implementation of an environmental justice screening tool, due by April 2019.

(The settlement also requires DEQ to maintain and update monthly an online list of complaints for which a determination of violation has been made. The agency also must publish an annual report with detailed data about the number of complaints, their investigations and resolutions. In addition, DEQ will conduct temporary, and depending on the data, potentially permanent, ambient air quality monitoring in and around Duplin County. The agency will monitor surface water near the farms for at least one year.)

Don Cavellini of the NC Environmental Justice Network, one of the parties to the settlement, asked state regulators to require groundwater monitoring downhill from any farm that remains in the 100-year flood plain.

As part of a state buyout program, more than 40 farms in these flood plains have been purchased and converted to conservation easements. Four hog farms in Tyrrell County have already accepted state buyouts and closed. Only one farm remains in the county, according to state records: New Colony. 

Flood maps show that New Colony is on a peninsula of comparatively higher ground, surrounded by land the consistency of soup that is just four feet above sea level. New Colony is on North Phelps Road, a hardpan of sand that leads to state game lands. On one side of North Phelps is a swamp, a forest and a channel. On the other side, lie fallow farm fields, full drainage ditches and the expanse of New Colony. 

In the past week, the area has received about an inch of rain, and the ruts and the mud have reduced the narrow road in some spots to just one lane. It’s cold and dry, so the odor, while nauseating next to the farm, isn’t traveling far. No waste is being sprayed, in part because the ground and fields are wet.

The next warm day, though, Arena expects the odor and the flies to return. But these two acres  have been in his family since 1953, and he plans to stay here. His father is buried on the property. Some day, his mother, who lives in Louisiana, will be buried there, as well.  “I’ll be back there, too,” he says.

Swine Farm Violations, October 2014-September 2018

This table shows the penalty amounts levied against swine farms over the last permitting period. Bolded farms indicate multiple violations. Permit numbers that begin with the prefix “NC” indicate these farms operate under federal discharge permits, not general permits. General permits assume the farms don’t discharge into surface water. Source: DEQ civil enforcement database, animal feeding operations database

 

 

Swine Farm Violations.xlsx

Farm owner	No. hogs permitted	No. lagoons	County	Address	City	Penalty 10/2014 to 9/2018 ($)
A McRae	7,040	1	Anson	3459 Dennis Rd	Wadesboro	213
Allen Norris	4,480	1	Bladen	458 Ccc Rd	Council	8,478
Douglas Bordeaux	3,672	1	Bladen	2690 Sweet Home Church Rd	Elizabethtown	3,063
Byron Melvin	7,040	2	Bladen	253 Berry Lewis Rd	Bladenboro	3,011 (multiple penalties)
J Norris	5,880	1	Bladen	604 Powell Rd	Clarkton	8,478
Ronald Hutchison	5,880	1	Bladen	3874 NC Hwy 87 E	Elizabethtown	6,025
Channing Gooden	6,060	1	Bladen	7275 Rosindale Rd	Council	12,583
Timothy Craig	4,400	1	Chatham	557 Alston Bridge Rd	Siler City	2,600
Gibson Stocks	7,344	2	Columbus	4223 Olddothan Rd	Tabor City	303
McLawhorn Livestock Farm Inc	3,926	4	Craven	5909 Hwy 17 S	New Bern	12,042 (multiple penalties)
Grace Knowles	1,196	1	Duplin	8097 S NC 41 Hwy	Wallace	303
Stan Bowles	7,320	3	Duplin	1552 Dobson Chapel Rd	Magnolia	5,615
Chris Turner (now Randy Kennedy)	1,196	2	Duplin	238 Kennedy Ln	Pink Hill	206
Sheila Graham	10,560	2	Duplin	389 Blackmore Rd	Warsaw	15,168 (multiple penalties)
Rodney Kornegay	2,448	1	Duplin	240 Popeye Rd	Mount Olive	206
Mark Davis	2,880	1	Duplin	Hwy 903	Magnolia	5187
Grace Knowles	2,448	1	Duplin	8141 S NC 41	Wallace	303
Andy Morrell	750	1	Duplin	316 Pink Hill Rd	Pink Hill	213
Renewable Transport LLC	1,400	2	Duplin	518 Eneas Lanier Rd	Chinquipin	296
Winfred Harrell	1,440	1	Duplin	2219 S NC 50	Rose Hill	206
Rufus Rouse	3,698	2	Duplin	1672-A Pasture Branch Rd	Beulaville	206
Rex Halso	2,424	2	Duplin	204 Old NC 24	Beulaville	2,074
Paul Dail	11,200	2	Duplin	Paul Ed Dail Rd	Kenansville	14,889
Charles Stokes	4,310	1	Greene	398 Tripp-Grimsley Rd	Ayden	8,816
Hazel Pridgen	7,200	1	Greene	2398 Hull Rd	Snow Hill	206
Elizabeth Dail	3,000	1	Greene	358 Dailtown Rd	Snow Hill	303
Richard Pridgen	720	2	Greene	3949 Hwy 258 S	Snow Hill	183
Lizzie Swine Farm LLC	12,326	3	Greene	1678 Vandiford Thomas Rd	Snow Hill	4,294
Bruce Humble	1,470	2	Guilford	6653 Smithwood Rd	Liberty	2,254
Dwight Youngblood	3,900	3	Johnston	2549 Wilsons Mills Rd	Smithfield	4,193
Faison Investments LLC	3,000	1	Johnston	6944 Harper House Rd	Newton Grove	6,130
Murphy-Brown LLC	6,338	2	Jones	244 Tonya Ln	Trenton	3,944
Murphy-Brown LLC	7,854	2	Jones	649-A Burney Town Rd	Kinston	2,122
Gregory Marshburn	4,000	1	Jones	259 Shiver Ln	Trenton	4,716
Douglas Lanier	7,450 (now closed)	2	Jones	522 Plum Nearly Ln	Trenton	64,072
Sherall Houston	2,448	1	Jones	9367 Hwy 41 W	Trenton	1,758
Donald Taylor	10,320	3	Jones	508 Ben Banks Rd	Trenton	1,703 (multiple violations)
Donald Howard	3,600	1	Lenior	4059 Vine Swamp Rd	Kinston	9,406
Craig Tyndall	3,520	1	Lenoir	559 Jonestown Rd	Pink Hill	4,727
Forrest Rouse	6,,000	2	Lenoir	811 Gabe Price Rd	Seven Springs	3,203
Fannie Rouse	600	2	Lenoir	5632 Liddell Rd	Seven Springs	183
Don Howard	3,600	1	Lenoir	4059 Vine Swamp Rd	Kinston	6,730 (multiple violations)
Williams Farms	950	2	Northampton	149 Woods Lane	Gaston	213
Morris Brinson	2,448	1	Onslow	1907 Kinston Hwy	Richlands	296
Chris Casteen	5,200	2	Onslow	1009 Gregory Fork Rd	Richlands	296
Greenwood Livestock LLC	7,920	3	Pender	1067 Raccoon Rd	Willard	5931
James Barnhill	3,672	2	Pender	3968 Slocum Rd	Atkinson	6,066
Terry Allen	0	3	Person	6155 Burlington Rd	Roxboro	3,084
Franklin Poindexter	0	2	Person	990 Young Chapel Church Rd	Roxboro	4,760
Ephraigm Smith	4,896	2	Pitt	7267 NC 43 S	Greenville	3,676 (multiple violations)
GIS of NC	2,400	1	Pitt	4551 NC Hwy 30	Stokes	3,325
John Lewis	830	4	Pitt	4376 Lewis Store Rd	Walstonburg	952
Jack Allen	4,800	1	Pitt	2832 Hwy 102 E	Ayden	296
Wayne Buck (now C & R Livestock)	4,800	1	Pitt	3236 Ervin Buck Rd	Greenville	3074
John Ward	6,500	1	Robeson	387 Robert Bessie Rd	Lumberton	6,898
Garland McCollum	0	2	Rockingham	210 Massey Creek Rd	Madison	573
Bryan McLamb	2,480	1	Sampson	2525 Plain View Hwy	Dunn	206
Jerry Trent Barnes (now Darden Family)	3,520	1	Sampson	4940 Highhouse Rd	Roseboro	206
Ben Warwick	2,940	1	Sampson	1305 Honrine Rd	Clinton	5,851
Joe Butler	5,760	1	Sampson	5331 Five Bridge Rd	Clinton	1,782
Michael Merritt	2,940	1	Sampson	3170 Waycross Rd	Magnolia	206
Franklin Lindsay	4,880	1	Sampson	1000 Linsday Farm Ln	Clinton	14,177 (multiple violations)
Ryan Butler	5,600	2	Sampson	3690 The Ave	Clinton	1,782
Ken Spell (now Wayne Spell)	3,552	1	Sampson	484 Horse Pasture Rd	Salemburg	296
Ray Pate	2,899	3	Sampson	2210 Hunter Rd	Clinton	5,119
Seacoast Group LLC	1,100	2	Sampson	1215 Josh Sessoms	Roseboro	3,989
G & C Swine Farm	2,480	1	Sampson	2092 Casey Rd	Faison	483
Ken Spell	6,400	2	Sampson	Sr 1301 683 Marion Amos Rd	Clinton	206
Larry Martin	1,224	1	Wayne	1224 Mills Loop Rd	Mount Olive	213
Bill Ellis (since sold to Nash Pigg Rentals)	898	2	Wilson	7372 Rock Ridge Rd	Sims	3,132
Bill Ellis (since sold to Nash Pigg Rentals)	425	1	Wilson	7030 Boykin Rd	Sims	8,154

Republish