Lawsuit offers hyperbole, not solutions

Wilmington Star-News | Letter to the Editor

March 26, 2024

To the Editor:

Cape Fear River Watch is misleading people about NC pig farms. Imposing more stringent regulations on farmers won’t improve water quality — because our farms are already highly regulated.

Are our farms “famously under-regulated”? Every large pig farm in NC must obtain a permit that strictly regulates how waste is managed and forbids ANY waste from entering streams or rivers. In addition, state officials personally inspect every pig farm, every year.  

The Riverkeeper makes unfounded claims about the health impacts of living near farms, pointing to dubious studies that base allegations off unproven correlations. One expert who has actually studied these issues, Dr. Keith Ramsey at ECU, concluded that “the real health threats needing attention in eastern North Carolina are diet and lifestyle... not hog farms.”

Finally, farms are blamed for pollution following major hurricanes. Florence was indeed disastrous — but it was municipal wastewater treatment facilities that spilled 121 million gallons of sewage into our state’s waterways. EPA Director Michael Regan said, “There are probably orders of magnitude more human waste that has escaped these wastewater treatment facilities than what has escaped these pig lagoons.”

If water quality is worsening, pig farms are not to blame. No new pig farms have been built in North Carolina for more than 25 years.

Rather than attack pig farms, Cape Fear River Watch and others should recognize our efforts to continuously improve. One example: generating renewable natural gas on farms. Such efforts significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize odor, and prevent flooding.

Unfortunately, activists continue to choose hyperbole over fact. NC deserves better.

Roy Lee Lindsey

CEO, NC Pork Council