Judicial Watch: Hog Giant Must Clean Up; What About Duke?

Federal courts in North Carolina were the sites of environmental action on two fronts last week: hog waste and coal ash dumps. Both cases have strong environmental justice overtones.

Hog Giant Must Clean Up: Giant pork production corporation Murphy-Brown must stop stalling and clean up nearly a dozen factory-style hog operations, according to the ruling of a U.S. District Court judge in North Carolina last week.

Murphy-Brown LLC was ordered to end delays that have stretched on for years and fix the problems at 11 factory hog farm sites in six rural, mostly poor counties in eastern North Carolina. Judge Malcolm Howard wrote, “Considering that each of the farms were identified…by conditions including lagoon leakage and elevated nitrogen concentrations [in adjoining waters], the corrective action is necessary to mitigate such conditions.” The company must allow a consultant agreed upon with the lawsuit plaintiffs to collect information and prepare cleanup plans.

For a map of the farm locations and more details on the problems, see this article by environmental reporter Lisa Sorg.

Murphy-Brown is obligated under a 2006 federal court consent decree to address the identified 11 problem sites but has failed to do so, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center’s (SELC) arguments which resulted in the new court order.

What About Duke? Environmental and civil rights groups last week asked the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to require Duke Energy to clean up the large coal ash pit at the Belews Creek coal power plant in Stokes County.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed the case on behalf of several citizen groups. Among the plaintiffs are the North Carolina conference and Stokes County branch of the NAACP, who call the need for cleanup “a quintessential example of environmental justice.” NAACP state president, the Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, said, “In a county that’s predominantly white, Duke Energy’s polluting coal ash sits in the middle of a black community of limited means.” The lawsuit cites carcinogens and other potentially harmful chemicals linked to coal ash in surface and ground water nearby.

Duke is attempting to “cap in place” many of its coal ash pits. The process of adding a water-resistant cover may be cheaper than relocation of the ash, but it fails to line the existing pit against continuing seepage of toxins into the groundwater, and does noting to move the ash farther away from at-risk surface waters or human communities. According to SELC, “In response to testimony at a hearing near Belews Creek, the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded that ‘the minimum standard for all coal ash storage is in lined, watertight landfills away from drinking water sources.’”

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