House says no to swine lakes

Ban on new farms ends in September

The state House on Monday voted 108-0 to ban the construction of new waste lagoons on hog farms and set higher standards for new waste disposal systems.

Lawmakers are moving to pass the legislation before a 10-year-old moratorium on construction of new hog farms expires in September.

"This is a consensus bill with the hog farming community and the environmental community and governor's office sitting around the table," said Rep. Russell Tucker, a Duplin County Democrat who drafted portions of the bill. "No one is totally satisfied. Therefore, it is a consensus bill."

The bill, which the Senate previously passed, returns to that chamber for concurrence with changes made by the House.

The measure fell short of a phase-out of existing lagoons that environmental groups initially sought. But it does provide aid to farmers to help them voluntarily convert to more environmentally friendly waste disposal systems.

"The bill sets out loud and clear that the future for North Carolina is systems that meet new performance standards," said Jane Preyer, director of North Carolina Environmental Defense, an environmental advocacy group.

Farms with existing waste lagoons could continue to use them and, in certain circumstances, could replace failing lagoons that pose an imminent hazard with new ones. Environmentalists said that change weakened the bill. But the hog industry contended that farmers could be put out of business otherwise.

Tommy Stevens, director of environmental services for the industry group N.C. Pork Council, said hog farms can live with the legislation. "I think it was a bill in which everyone gave up some things and received some things," Stevens said.

North Carolina is the nation's second-largest hog producer with an estimated 9.5 million swine on more than 2,300 farms, most of them in Eastern North Carolina.

State leaders have been struggling with how to reduce the water and air pollution caused by the factory farms, which produce huge volumes of manure and urine that sit in open-air waste ponds. While the solids are broken down by bacteria, the liquid waste is sprayed on fields as fertilizer. During rains or floods, the waste can wash into streams, degrading water quality and promoting conditions that can cause fish kills.

The bill would provide $2 million a year in aid to farmers to help them voluntarily convert to more environmentally friendly waste disposal technologies. Farmers could receive as much as $500,000 in aid to help replace lagoons.

Rep. Carolyn Justice, a Pender County Republican, said that provides an opportunity to get new waste disposal technology on the ground and improve it.

"I think we're all going to be thrilled at what is done with this waste," Justus said.

While the moratorium has been in place, researchers at N.C. State University studied various alternative methods of disposing of hog waste. Mike Williams, director of the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center at NCSU, has said state incentives to farmers would jump-start the conversion process and help get the costs down.

The bill also creates a pilot program on as many as 50 farms to capture methane gas for production of electricity -- a change from the Senate version.

Some environmental groups objected that hog farms should be required to adopt more environmentally friendly waste handling systems before installing technology to capture methane, a greenhouse gas. They argued it would prolong the use of lagoons in the state.

"We are disappointed in the package as a whole," said Heather Jacobs, Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper. "If you are putting in infrastructure to collect methane, the likelihood that those farms would be converted to superior technology goes down."