The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released their draft general permits for massive hog operations, and we need your help to urge the permits to be strengthened. This is a chance for everyone to speak up for stronger clean water and air protections for their communities.
There are over 2,000 large hog operations in North Carolina. Most of these industrial farms are located in eastern North Carolina, and disproportionately in Black, Latino, Native American, and low-wealth communities.
These permits, if approved, will determine how most of the billions of gallons of waste from North Carolina's millions of hogs is handled. Currently, the waste is stored in unlined open cesspools, often the size of football fields, then sprayed on nearby cropland. This method of disposal is outdated and has had lasting impacts on the communities that surround them. Now the industry is proposing to lock that broken system in place—and pose new threats to impacted communities—by capturing and transporting some of the gases from the cesspools to generate energy.
DEQ updates these permits every 5 years, and this is our chance to make sure all communities are protected. It's important that DEQ knows that you want strong protections against these multinational hog industry giants because without them it puts our communities and waterways at risk.
Please sign out petition to urge DEQ to do more to protect the communities disproportionately burdened by toxic air, polluted water, and other environmental health threats.
We, the undersigned, ask the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to strengthen the proposed permits for swine operations to better protect North Carolinians who live, work, play, and pray nearby these polluting facilities. We urge the agency to advance equity, transparency, accountability, and technology by doing following:
- DEQ must consider the cumulative effects of public health and environmental harms of industrial hog operations on nearby community members, including swine biogas operations.
- DEQ must require recordkeeping and reporting so the public knows where, when, and how much hog waste is created by these facilities, as well as what is in that waste and how it is managed.
- DEQ must hold the industry accountable and protect critical drinking water resources in our communities by requiring groundwater monitoring.
DEQ's actions must include a commitment to environmental justice. According to the DEQ Secretary's Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board (EJEAB): "the lagoon and sprayfield waste management system used at industrial hog operations pollutes waterways, contaminates drinking water, and dirties the air people breathe. This pollution and the resulting harms to human health have burdened neighbors—mainly people of color and low wealth communities--for decades."
We urge DEQ to advance environmental justice in our state by reducing harm done by CAFOs to our rivers, streams, and air quality. The health and safety of neighboring communities must be DEQ's top priority.
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Sincerely,
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