Please join Louis Bacon’s Moore Charitable Foundation and Waterkeeper Alliance in asking the Environmental Protection Agency to protect all communities from the dangerous pollution of industrial hog operations in North Carolina. By signing the petition started by local resident Elsie Herring, you can help demand nondiscriminatory policies and that uphold the basic right of all people to clean air and water. The petition will be delivered to Office of General Counsel, Environmental Protection Agency, Avi Garbow.
Stop the Hog Industry from Spraying Pig Waste on Our Homes
Toxic hog waste is pumped into open lagoons and sprayed into neighboring communities in North Carolina.
The hog operation next door makes my life miserable. The pork industry down here in North Carolina places profits over my civil rights. I have no choice but to live with spray manure blowing onto my property. There’s an increase in snakes, rats, flies, and mosquitoes. There’s a horrific odor seeping into my house even when the windows are shut as the Health Department has advised.
The powerful hog industry should not get away with this poor treatment of people of color and the environment just as those who brushed aside concerns of those in Flint, Michigan should be held accountable for their shameful discrimination and the health and environmental impact that caused.
I’ve had the hog farmer next door called me a “bitch” repeatedly because of my complaints. I’ve had men on my property with guns to intimidate me. I’ve had local authorities with connections to the hog industry tell me defending my right to clean air and water could put me in prison.
Do you ever see hog facilities set up in wealthy, white communities? Why do you think that is?
Epidemiologists from the University of North Carolina determined these industrial hog operations “disproportionately affect Black, Hispanic and American Indian residents,” and this reflects a pattern “generally recognized as environmental racism.”
I live on property that’s been in my family since the 1800s when my grandfather bought it after being freed from slavery. My mother lived here her whole life. It’s a shame that the hog industry came in a couple decades ago, without giving proper notice, and causes such problems for longtime residents.
If the liquid waste can eat the paint off my car just imagine what it’s doing to our bodies. When the hog farmers start spraying around manure from their lagoons, you know it. Your eyes start running, you start coughing and gagging, and you have trouble breathing and your heart rate goes up. Headaches from the odor are all too common.
Our air is so polluted that we can’t hang our clothes out to dry unless we want them to smell like pig waste and risk having the manure mist cover our clothing. The water is so foul, we cannot drink from the well. There’s depression, anger, and frustration because many in my community have been doing all we can do stop this discriminatory treatment.
This is a desperate situation. As people of color and those who are poor, we are being taken advantage of, and now the EPA is looking into the discrimination and needs to know many American taxpayers want this to be taken seriously.
Over the years, I’ve done all I can to get some justice. I called everyone there is to call and attended any meeting where I could speak up to voice my concerns. It has not been enough, and that’s why I need you.
Please ask the EPA to step in and investigate this discrimination. If it happens to me, it’s going to happen next door. It’s just a matter of time before it happens in your neighborhood.
More about this issue: Waterkeeper’s Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign
Through the Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign, Waterkeeper fights to hold industry and regulatory agencies accountable for water quality impacts. The North Carolina CAFO Campaign employs a strategic blend of public outreach and education, community support, partnership building, regulatory reform, litigation, and field investigation designed to expose and reform industry practices, cleanup North Carolina’s waterways and force the NC Department of Environmental Quality and EPA to enforce the requirements of the Clean Water Act.