Hurricane Florence could render N.C. pig manure pools a public health hazard, as previous hurricanes have - Entrepreneur Generations

Hogs on a flooded farm crowd on top of a barn in N.C. after Hurricane Floyd in 1999. (Reuters photo)

Neighbors already complain about the stink of hog farms in North Carolina, but when Hurricane Florence hits the state tomorrow or Friday, thousands of open pig manure pools could become a public health hazard. North Carolina is one of the leading hog-farming states in the nation, with about 9 million pigs on 2,300 farms producing about 10 billion pounds of wet animal waste a year, Zoe Schlanger reports for Quartz.

Previous hurricanes show that North Carolina has reason for concern: "2016’s Hurricane Matthew inundated 14 hog manure lagoons. In the days leading up to the hurricane’s landfall, some farmers pumped waste out of their lagoons and hauled it away in an effort to limit the damage," Schlanger reports. "Hurricane Floyd in 1999 did much worse, flooding 'dozens' of hog lagoons and causing half a dozen lagoons’ containing walls to fail. The liquid waste that escaped eventually wound up in estuaries, and was blamed for algae blooms and fish kills. Floodwaters that come in contact with hog feces make for a toxic soup, and raises fears about the potential for bacteria from the pig feces to contaminate North Carolina’s groundwater."

Andy Curliss, the CEO of the North Carolina Pork Council, told Bloomberg that the manure lagoons can take 25 inches of rain without failing. Florence is expected to bring up to 40 inches of rain to some parts of North Carolina, Schlanger reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2COAIl7 Hurricane Florence could render N.C. pig manure pools a public health hazard, as previous hurricanes have - Entrepreneur Generations

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