Legislators want to hide a new set of hog pollution projects from public view. A Senate bill would sweep a whole new category of corporate biogas operations to regulatory approval with no public scrutiny of each project.

It’s the same corporate-friendly regulatory framework already in place for hundreds of air- and water-polluting factory hog farms across the state. Open hog waste cesspools and sprayfield systems now qualify for a general permit. In theory, those systems are not supposed to create pollution issues and don’t result in waste discharges to surface waters. The reality is very frequently otherwise. However, due to the general permit categorical approval, concerned neighbors and other impacted parties never get a hearing on the application or renewal of any farm’s permit. 

Now, the sponsors of Senate Bill 605, the Farm Act of 2021, want to cover all hog waste biogas projects under a similar general permit which will allow their expedited approval with little or no public review.

Environmental groups and corporate hog farm neighbors oppose the bill as written, noting it overlooks the need to address these farms’ real impacts, while cutting off the public’s voices expressing those concerns. “They say these systems don’t solve the many other problems posed by the farms: open lagoons and spray fields, both of which emit methane; the risk of degraded groundwater from applying feces and urine on farm fields; other air pollutants, including particulate matter and ammonia; and the environmental justice issues the farms raise for communities of color,” reports Lisa Sorg in NC Policy Watch.

Conservation advocates like us will continue to closely track this bill and push for changes to address climate change, water and air pollution, and environmental racism impacts of North Carolina’s factory hog farms.