Swine whine: N.C. hog farms sued over smell of waste pits

RALEIGH, N.C. — Drive past clustered hog sheds containing thousands of animals in the country’s No. 2 pork-producing state on the wrong day and the reason hundreds of North Carolina neighbors are suing in federal court is clear: it really stinks.

The question facing jurors in a federal lawsuit starting Monday is whether the open-air animal waste pits that proliferated over a generation generate intense smells, clouds of flies and noise.

The trial’s outcome could shake the profits and change production methods of pork producers who have enjoyed legislative protection and promotion in one of the nation’s food hubs. Supporters see industrial-scale hog complexes as generating jobs and revenues in rural communities. Friendly lawmakers last year sought to retroactively sink the lawsuits by more than 500 neighbors now lined up to go to trial one after another.

Neighbors like Randy Davis contend the industry’s long practice of storing liquid waste in what producers call lagoons, then spraying treated excrement onto nearby fields as fertilizer, spells misery for them.

“A lagoon is something that a pretty 15-year-old in the South Pacific swims in,” said Davis, a state employee whose Green County home is about is about ¾ mile from the nearest impoundment. “This is not a lagoon. It’s a cesspool. It’s a 9-acre feces and urine pit.”

The plaintiffs’ attorneys also say that information uncovered about company influence campaigns show their “knowledge of the harmful health effects of its hog operations,” the inadequacy of regulations to address those health effects, and the availability of feasible alternatives.

Pork producers say they not only care about their rural neighbors, but their operations are inspected annually to make sure they comply with environmental regulations.

Hog growers are keeping an eye on the litigation that could force them to make changes or part with big payouts.

“Certainly we’re watching it. There’s some levels of concern in particular as it relates to possible impact to the economy” of the rural communities where the farms operate and pay wages, said Andy Curliss, CEO of the North Carolina Pork Council, a trade group.

Allen G. Breed The Associated Press Jets of liquified hog waste shoot from spray guns and onto a field near Wallace, N.C. A federal lawsuit starting Monday in the country’s No. 2 pork-producing state is the first of a string of cases deciding whether open-air animal waste pits are a...