Background on Cape Fear

Cape Fear is located in North Carolina.  It has about 9,324 square miles in its water basin.This is 16.5% of the total land area which contains 27% of the states population. Approximately 27% of these waters are use-impaired mostly by fecal coliform bacteria and low oxygen levels.

A little Background on Hog Farming in North Carolina.

Hog farming in North Carolina is around a $1 million business.  This makes the state the second largest producer of hogs in the United States.  There are more pigs than people in the state.  Approximately 9.5 million tons of hog waste is produced by these farms a year! The hog farming industry started to boom in the 1980's and took off rapidly in the 1990's.

What can communities along the Cape Fear Rivers do?

   Unfortunately, there is very little that communities that are located next to industrial hog farming operations can do. The greatest concentration of these "farms" are in poor and mostly minority communities who don't have the means or knowledge to fight for basic rights such as water quality. Fortunately, there are many environmental groups in North Carolina who are trying to force the hog farming industry to clean up its act (links posted at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/NClinks/Webenvironment.cfm.)

   At the heart of this issue is a greater debate that continues to be fought throughout statehouses all across the country. It is the question of allowing large corporations to make huge profits at the expense of the environment and surrounding communities. Ultimately, it is the consumers who make the call, not the companies or the state and federal government. Because the methods of producing cheap goods such as pork or chemicals are kept out of sight from affluent, influential communities, they are allowed to continue business as usual. Meanwhile, poor, under represented people bear the true cost of consumer convenience. Until consumers make an across the board effort to understand how their food, medicines, and energy are manufactured, and what true costs are, the cycle of environmental destruction will continue.

Pig Business - French Subtitles

CCL History Series: Water Quality -- Battle of Hogs

Want to get involved in Cleaning up this pollutant?!

There are many ways you can get involved in helping North Carolina with this pollutant.  Check out: http://www.ncdoj.gov/Top-Issues/Improving-the-Environment/Environmental-Grants.aspx or contact the fine folks at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/) to see how to help out!

Want to know more? Check out these sites:

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/statter.html
http://www.uncwil.edu/riverrun/river_tutorial/CFRSystem.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36760266/Factory-Farmed-Hogs-in-North-Carolina

http://www.unc.edu/courses/2009fall/econ/051/001/SOT_Lagoons/Hosterman_enviro.pdf

http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/mera/iloodoreffects.html

http://www.grist.org/article/north-carolina-governor-asked-to-address-hog-industrys-health-impacts/

What manmade causes led up to the intensity of the event?

Before legislations, many farmers would directly dump manure or dead pigs into rivers, which contaminated the rivers. Once the state recognized this problem, the state created regulations by which the farmers must abide when dumping any animal products. All farms throughout North Carolina have regulations that require farmers to adopt a whole-farm waste management plan. This plan specifies how manure is to be stored, how much manure is to be applied to fields, the nutrient balance of the manure, the crops to be grown on land, where it is applied and rates and timing of application.

Also hog lagoons which are manmade have a big affect on the Cape Fear River. This is due to hog wastes that still end up seeping into the ground water due to inadequate hog lagoons and runoff. There is no doubt that hog farming adds nutrients to a watershed but nitrogen and other nutrients such as phosphorus are what seems to pose the greatest environmental cost to water quality in North Carolina. Ground water is affected when soil below the root zone contains levels of high concentration of nitrogen and other nutrients. In some cases, the nitrogen will move through the soil and into the ground water, contaminating both soil and ground water. If the nitrogen or other harmful nutrients contaminate ground water that flows into drinking water supplies, this poses a threat to humans. Also, the nitrate can be carried to other lakes and streams contaminating them as well. 

Water contamination can also occur from fertilizers that are sprayed on crops adjacent to the hog farms. A specific amount of manure is allowed to be sprayed on crops as fertilizer. With excessive rain, the fertilizer can become run off and contaminate the streams. This is another example of why phosphorus and nitrate levels in streams surrounding hog farms are exceeding regulations.

Commercial fertilizers have also been traced in causing high nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the ground water. The commercial fertilizers not only cause this contamination but can be very toxic in large amounts when consumed by plants or animals. 

What natural causes led up to the intensity of the event?

Weather can play a huge role in effectively managing hog manure and lagoons. Substantial rains in hog farming areas can cause the lagoons to overflow or the walls surrounding the lagoons to break, allowing for the hog waste to enter nearby streams and rivers. During the mid 1990’s, a series of sever weather storms swept through the coastal areas of North Carolina and caused major flooding of streams and river. After Hurricane Fran, the US Department of Agriculture granted federal grants to coastal areas to help with clean up. Much of the environment was effected by downed trees and having to clean out materials from rivers and streams but according to the NC DENR report, hog farming might have had a big impact on the amount of damage down by the storm.

Another incident in North Carolina effecting water quality was after Hurricane Floyd. A hog lagoon broke and spilled over two million gallons of waste from Lanier Farm in Rose Hill into a tributary in the Northeast Cape Fear River. Two other hog lagoons on the farm burst as well. Sampson and Pitt country were also two counties to get hit hard by the hurricane and many of their hog lagoons overflowed as well