The New River springs to life on a CAFO and travels through land supporting an additional 43 swine and 60 poultry CAFOs. Several CAFOs are located directly along the banks of the New River. Water courses traversing the fields used to apply animal waste from these CAFOs empty into the public waters of this extremely nutrient sensitive river.
Several CAFOs can be found within the White Oak River sub-basin with many poultry and including 3
swine operations. The state of North Carolina has done virtually nothing to regulate the disposal of poultry waste and has been anything but aggressive in requiring compliance with swine waste disposal regulations.
State agencies have been disinclined to increase restrictions on these operations despite evidence showing severe negative environmental impacts. Through loopholes in the statewide ‘moratorium’ hog production has increased by 56,000+ head last year to over 180,000 anually. Onslow County also produces over 2,000,000 turkeys and earns top 5 ranking in North Carolina. Finally, we raise 900,000 chickens per year to further ‘enrich’ our environment. Limited environmental oversight exists. All producers provide self generated documentation of
activities to state agencies. Only swine operations experience mandated on-site inspections. The only restriction to poultry waste application is that it not be entered directly into public waters! Enforcement efforts are impeded by understaffing, under funding, and splintered jurisdictional authority. The chair of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission aptly observed that the industry’s case for not requiring NPDES permits was, at its core, a ‘legal fiction.’ Unfortunately, the pollution is real and the only fiction resides in the legality issue.