Legislative Watch: Polluters Prevail in House on Hogs, Stream Loss
Pro-polluter forces enjoyed a good week in the NC House last week on legislation to further truncate environmental protections for clean water, clean air, and human health.
First, the House gave final approval to its version of this year’s edition of “regulatory reform” (read: environmental protection cutbacks), SB 131, the so-called “Regulatory Reform Act of 2016-17.” Among other bad provisions, SB 131 would double the amount of stream length which could be destroyed without compensation by a development project. That change would overturn a 20-year-old critical environmental protection for clean water and resources in our state.
The House rejected, 42-73 on a near-party line vote, an amendment to turn that particular provision into a study. (Legislators can bet that vote will show up prominently on this year’s environmental Legislative Scorecard.) The bill now returns to the Senate for either concurrence in House changes or referral to a conference committee from both chambers.
Second, the House gave rushed initial approval to legislation that would strip the neighbors of factory hog farms of their potential legal remedies for damage to their health or long-term use of their property. This terrible bill, HB 467, “Agriculture and Forestry Nuisance Remedies,” is a flagrant gift to the masters of North Carolina’s hog factory farming system, pork behemoth Murphy-Brown, the hog-producing subsidiary of Smithfield Farms. They are currently facing 26 lawsuits filed on behalf of 541 people in federal court.
Passage of HB 467 would effectively resolve these pending legal actions against the damaged neighbors, by limiting their financial recovery to the low market sales value of that property—likely only a fraction of their health-related injuries. This outcome would represent an unusually perverse example of environmental anti-justice. By guaranteeing that depressed land values were the only financial risk polluters faced, it would encourage the location of more polluting operations in poor communities.
HB 467 was almost slipped past the House without debate in a slick surprise scheduling move. After alert House members called foul, the bill passed its first floor vote 64-48. A final House vote is expected this week.
If it ultimately becomes law, this bill is likely to face a stiff challenge to its constitutionality. For a more detailed look at the environmental justice concerns underlying the hog farm impacts issue, see here.
