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Tropical Storm Debby brought heavy rain and flooding threats to North Carolina this week, highlighting the vulnerability of hog ponds and wastewater treatment plants.
By Austyn Gaffney
As Tropical Storm Debby moved toward North Carolina and increased the risk of flooding across the state Friday morning, officials were tracking more than 90 sites, adding dams, wastewater treatment plants and lagoons containing animal waste, a number that has more than doubled since Thursday. .
At least 17 of the sites were animal feeding operations, according to an email from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality released Thursday. At least 3 of them had absorbed enough water from Tropical Storm Debby to accumulate debris in the lagoons at levels higher than permitted, they were not overflowing.
Most of those animal farms are large-scale pig lagoons that combine pig urine, feces, and other waste with water and anaerobic bacteria. The resulting suspension is stored in open pits that turn bright pink as bacteria digest the sludge to give it an odor.
Contamination enters waterways when open wells overflow or when the earth walls of a well collapse. Pig manure that has been sprayed in nearby fields can run downstream if the fields are oversaturated, although spraying is not allowed when it rains. Dead animals, dead floods, can also pollute waterways.
North Carolina has issued licenses to more than 2,500 puppy shops, most of which are pig shops. North Carolina is the third largest hog manufacturer in the country, and in 2023, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services counted 8 million hogs on farms across the state.
During Hurricane Florence in 2018, at least 110 lagoons discharged hog manure or were about to do so.
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