Marisa Linton: Muddying the waters

At last the Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliances have admitted that North Carolina hog farms are stringently regulated to protect the environment. But, unfortunately, these groups continue to muddy the waters in other ways.

In his Aug. 12 letter “Poultry farms, waste lack regulations,” Yadkin Riverkeeper Will Scott acknowledged the comprehensive regulations on hog farms. But then he about-faced and repeated the allegation that hog farms are polluting rivers in Eastern North Carolina.

This is just the latest in a series of political attacks from Robert Kennedy Jr. of the Waterkeeper Alliance and his allies that North Carolina Farm Families has answered (ncfarmfamilies.com).

For example, Kennedy claims to have produced the first map showing where hog farms are in North Carolina, but the state has made public a list and map of all hog farms for years.

When examining Kennedy’s map, the “impaired” (or polluted) streams and rivers are not near hog farms in Eastern North Carolina. Instead, they’re around Raleigh and Durham.

If hog farms were polluting the streams in Raleigh and Durham, hog waste would have to flow upstream. And take a right turn.

Kennedy and Scott are attacking hog farmers to promote their political agenda, but they’re hurting a lot of honest, hard-working people.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Marisa Linton: Muddying the waters."