The New River springs to life on a large factory farm (also known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO) and travels through land that supports an additional 43 swine and 60 poultry CAFOs. Several of them are located directly along the banks of the New River, polluting the clean water along the way. Water that runs through the fields is used to apply animal waste from these farms, then emptied 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 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 not been inclined 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 regulations that would help protect the rivers exist. 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 hindered 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.
We work with several other water advocacy groups to right some of these wrongs. Through the 'Pure Farms Pure Waters' campaign, we work with North Carolina Waterkeeper Alliance members to join together and help apply pressure to state agencies, prevent rollbacks on important bills and support new regulations of these CAFOs. A goal is to also promote sustainable farming, which will not only decrease the level of nutrient pollution to our rivers, but also help boost the local economy.
