"It's awful," said Meismer, who lives in rural Bladen County. "It gets in your clothes, it gets in your car and it gets in your house. And it just won't come out."

This time of year, state officials always hear from angry homeowners who live near chicken farms. But there's little the state can do.

Unlike the hog industry, the growing poultry industry is virtually exempt from state regulation. Yet it is the biggest piece of the state's farm economy, accounting for one-third of farm income. Chickens and turkeys number about 165 million in North Carolina, dwarfing a hog population of 9.5 million.

At most chicken farms, no one checks whether farmers are properly handling the tons of waste their birds create. And there are no rules that stop farmers from stinking up neighborhoods, or whole cities, when they scoop rotting manure out of their chicken houses.

That's in stark contrast with the way the state watches over the hog industry. Pig farmers get two visits a year from state regulators. They must apply for permits, get state-approved training and craft waste-management plans. They must build their barns and lagoons -- the open ponds where they store animal waste --at least 1,500 feet from homes.

If a neighbor complains about odor, and the state deems it officially "objectionable," the farmer must go through a multistep process to cut the odor.

Hogs get so much scrutiny because the industry, which grew quickly in the 1990s, made news with lagoon ruptures that dumped millions of gallons of waste into rivers. State officials responded with a clampdown on farms that stored liquid waste in open ponds.

Most poultry farms are exempt from the laws because they don't use lagoons. Rather, dry waste simply builds up under the birds' feet until it is about a foot deep. Once a year, it is cleaned out and spread on fields as fertilizer.

Many say the odor of chicken poop, after months of fermenting, is more intense than hog waste.

However, neighbors of chicken farms have no recourse, even if a nearby farm spews feathers, manure or foul odors onto their property.

Three years ago, a chicken farm moved in next to Meismer. He said it stinks so bad that he often sees drivers going past with their hands over their noses. And in late winter, when the farmer cleans out the manure so it can be used as spring fertilizer, the odor reaches its peak.

In January, Meismer complained to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources and was told there is nothing the state can do.

Meismer, 59, a retired paper company worker, said he once planned to pass on his home of 30 years to his daughter.

"She said she didn't want to come out here," Meismer said. "It stunk too bad."

Poultry as polluters

As tobacco crops have declined, many farmers have turned to factory-style livestock as a way to make a living on small farms. The state has banned new hog farms since 1997, but the chicken industry has grown steadily.

These days, chickens don't scratch in the barnyard. Instead, as many as 20,000 birds are packed into long, enclosed barns where they spend their whole lives.

It's a system developed by large meatpacking companies, such as Perdue Farms. Most farmers grow chickens on contract to those companies, and the agreements they sign leave them responsible for handling a huge volume of waste.

The hog industry followed a similar model. And though the two industries handle waste differently, they both produce vast amounts of the same pollutants -- nitrogen and phosphorous.

Both can make poor neighbors.

Gary Saunders, who oversees animal operations for the Division of Air Quality, says he tells most people who call to complain about chicken farms the same thing: "There's not a thing I can do for you. That's the sad truth."

By contrast, when a neighbor complains about the odor of a hog farm with a liquid-waste system, Saunders and his staff can compel a farmer to create an odor-reducing plan.

The Division of Water Quality has slightly more authority.

Farmers with dry-waste systems aren't allowed to store manure within 100 feet of water, and they can't spread it on fields within 25 feet of water. They are required to have waste-management plans, showing that they don't overload the soil with nutrients, but the plans don't apply when the waste is hauled to another farm.

Paul Sherman, who oversees animal operations for the division, says those rules go largely unenforced. Because poultry farmers don't need permits, he doesn't know where most of them are. His inspectors go to poultry farms only when they get complaints.

State water and air-quality officials say they get a few dozen complaints a year.

Sherman says it's hard to know what environmental effects the farms are having. Phosphorous, the main nutrient in chicken waste, tends to stay in the soil -- giving it the potential for polluting groundwater. But most rural wells aren't tested unless homeowners request it.

State toxicologist Ken Rudo, with the Division of Public Health, said he finds dozens of tainted wells every year in the few counties where officials do regular testing of wells near livestock farms.

In other major poultry-producing states along the Chesapeake Bay, poultry waste has been recognized as a major source of water pollution. And several states, including Virginia, have permitting systems for poultry.

Thinking neighborly

James Parsons, a poultry specialist with the N.C. Cooperative Extension, said poultry companies do a good job of policing their growers. He said that farmers who don't follow state laws risk losing their contracts.

Poultry advocates also say that farmers are learning to be more sensitive to their neighbors. Many now store waste in sheds rather than out in the open. And most follow industry guidelines suggesting at least 500 feet between a chicken house and a dwelling.

But farmers argue that rural dwellers should understand: Food production isn't always pretty.

"The farming sector is not as clean as Food Lion," said Benny Bunting, who has raised chickens in Martin County since 1975. "Farmers are dealing with life and death every day."

That argument is small consolation to people who say poultry farms ruined their homes.

Doc Thompson, environmental health supervisor in Gaston County, said he got a complaint this year from an elderly woman who watched a chicken farm go up about 300 feet from her home. The huge industrial fans that ventilate the chicken houses blow toward her house, carrying a pungent odor. And when the farmer cleans out the waste, the woman often has to stay with family, Thompson said.

After calling several state agencies, Thompson says, he told the woman that her only recourse was to file a lawsuit.

"If we had the authority, I'd love to go out there today and do something about it," Thompson said. "It smells terrible."

Kim and Roger Lee say they know where a lawsuit leads. They had lived in a valley in mountainous Alexander County for 18 years when two chicken houses were built 800 feet from their house.

Kim Lee said that the fans covered their cars and house with feathers and a gray film and that the odor was unbearable. The couple developed respiratory problems and had to move into a camper, Lee said.

But the farm didn't violate any laws. State agencies couldn't help and, when they took the farmer to court, a jury found against them.

They have since abandoned their home and declared bankruptcy. They are renting a home in Catawba County, Lee said.

"My husband built that house with his own hands," Lee said. "That was where we planned to live for the rest of our lives. This should never have happened to anybody."

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