Communities living near hog farms are in harm's way, and the permit the legislature wants to delay includes long-overdue protections from this dangerous air and water pollution.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday that he hopes state lawmakers don't proceed with a bill that would change how concentrated animal feeding operations, namely hog farms, would be permitted.
The nation's attention has moved on from Hurricane Florence, but the storm has left a toxic legacy in the Carolinas, where lax environmental laws and a warming planet are proving to be a bad combination.
NEW BERN, NORTH CAROLINA —The full extent of Hurricane Florence's environmental damage isn't yet known in North Carolina, where waste from factory farms, coal ash, and other pollutants are contaminating floodwaters still on the rise after the largest East Coast deluge north of Florida in history.
At least 1.7 million chickens have died from flooding in the state. The impact is now coming into focus — including overflowing pools of hog manure and waterlogged sweet potato fields.
Commentary from EHN/Daily Climate's Peter Dykstra: Environmental advocates have a mixed record in court lately, and the victories smell worse than the setbacks.
Peter Dykstra and Host Jenni Doering discuss a $25 million award for the neighbors of some foul-smelling North Carolina hog farms, and the high risk of a disastrously low Lake Mead.
State regulators awarded an operating permit to a company that plans to open a hog farm in Cooper County on June 19 despite organized local opposition.
NC lawmakers added hog farm protections as part of the Farm Act. The House and Senate adopted limits on when and how hog-farm neighbors can file nuisance suits. It launched heated debate.
