While rain pelted North Carolina and raised the threat of flooding across the state, officials were monitoring almost 70 dams and lagoons holding animal waste that had overflowed or were at risk of failing on Thursday, a number that more than doubled between the morning and the afternoon.
At least 17 animal feeding operations were included in the monitoring. At least three had taken on enough water from Tropical Storm Debby to raise the waste within the lagoons to higher levels than permitted, although they were not necessarily overflowing, according to a North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality tracking website.
Most of these animal operations are large-scale hog lagoons that mix the urine, feces and other waste from swine with water and anaerobic bacteria. The resulting slurry is stored in open-air pits that turn bright pink as the bacteria digest the sludge to reduce the odor.
The pollution enters waterways when open pits overflow or when the earthen walls of a pit fail. Hog waste that has been sprayed on nearby fields can flow downstream if the fields are oversaturated, although spraying is not allowed when it’s raining. Dead animals, killed in the flooding, can also pollute waterways.
North Carolina has issued permits to more than 2,500 animal facilities, the majority of which raise pigs. North Carolina is the nation’s third largest hog producer, and in 2023, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services counted eight million swine on farms across the state.
During Hurricane Florence in 2018, at least 110 lagoons released pig waste or were at imminent risk of doing so.
But despite repeated calls from community members and environmental advocates to put in place additional protections to guard against flooding from the lagoons, not much has changed since Hurricane Florence, said Blakeley Hildebrand, a senior attorney covering industrial hog operations at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“Not only do these facilities contribute to climate change, leading to more intense and frequent storms,” Ms. Hildebrand said, “but they are significant vulnerabilities as facilities flood in major rain events.”
Other types of waste sites also at risk of flooding could serve as an example for public safety improvements, said Frank Holleman, another senior attorney at the law center.
Coal ash, the toxic waste material left over from the burning of coal for electricity, used to be stored in unlined earthen pits across the state. A series of legal actions have required major operators like Duke Energy to clean out those pits, storing the ash in modern, lined landfills. The changes mean that unlike hog waste, coal ash sites, which also flooded during Florence, are now largely out of reach of hurricane zones and areas that are likely to flood in North Carolina.
But hog waste and coal ash aren’t the only problems. Sewage from at least two wastewater treatment plants on the state’s southeastern coast overflowed into nearby waterways on Thursday.
The West Brunswick Regional Water Reclamation Facility had spilled over 750,000 gallons of treated waste into the Lockwood Folly River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The Ashe Plantation Wastewater Treatment Plant near Jacksonville had overflowed near Duck Creek, a stream within the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin.
Josh Kastrinsky, deputy communications director for the state environmental agency, said in an email on Thursday afternoon that the department’s staff was actively monitoring sites across the state for potential overflows or other environmental concerns.
“We are working with facility operators to assess and address any critical infrastructure concerns as noted in our public dashboard,” Mr. Kastrinsky said in an email. As of early Thursday afternoon, he said, there were no reports of lagoon overflows or problems at coal ash sites.
But threats continue to loom as water levels rise in the coming days.
“North Carolina continues to face unrelenting rain and destruction from Tropical Storm Debby,” Gov. Roy Cooper said during a news conference on Thursday morning. Intense rainfall had led to the declaring of states of emergency in 32 counties, with more expected as the storm moved north and west, Governor Cooper said. Roughly 125,000 North Carolinians were without power on Thursday morning, while 142,000 had lost power and had it restored. One death had been recorded in Wilson County after a tornado reportedly touched down.
While Governor Cooper said he didn’t expect to see as much damage in the state as 2016’s Hurricane Matthew or 2018’s Hurricane Florence caused, as floodwaters rise, the potential for fatalities remained.
“This is not over,” Mr. Cooper said. With rain still coming down, rivers were rising, he said, and “we’re concerned about river flooding in the next few days.”
William Ray, director of emergency management in North Carolina, urged residents to make sure they had a reliable way to get information over the coming days, including weather forecasts for their communities and directives, including evacuation orders, from local public safety agencies. Governor Cooper asked constituents to heed voluntary evacuation orders and to seek shelter when directed to. The state has opened 16 shelters, which as of Thursday morning were housing more than 60 people.
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