Flooding causes a hog lagoon to breach; others are at capacity

RALEIGH, N.C. - Hurricane Florence's heavy rains last week, along with ongoing major flooding, has caused one small hog lagoon to breach and flooded four others, according to the N.C. Pork Council.

In a statement Monday night, the council said another seven are at capacity and appear to have overtopped. Still, the council said after on-farm assessments and industry surveying, it did not believe there had been widespread impacts to 3,000 lagoons in the state that hold hog waste.

The hog farms and lagoons are just one of several environmental threats to the state from Florence.

Coal ash ponds, chemical factories, landfills and hazardous waste dumps also are located on or near North Carolina's two main rivers in Eastern North Carolina, the Cape Fear River and the Neuse River.

"North Carolina allows all this dangerous waste to be stored next to its flooding coastal - and, for that matter, inland - rivers," said Frank Holleman, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. "How long do we have to go through this until we decide it's too much risk?"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/flooding-causes-a-hog-lagoon-to-breach-others-are-at-capacity/ar-BBNvNBR?li=BBnbcA1