Asheville Asheville Durham Fayetteville Wilmington Durham Fayetteville Winston-Salem Wilmington Winston-Salem Charlotte Charlotte 31 HEADLINE Who’s Minding the Planet? SURFACE WATER Learn more: 0 1 - 20 21 - 40 41 - 60 > 60 ewg.org/interactive-maps Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations North Carolina produces the second most hogs of any state in the country. The state is home to more than 2,200 swine CAFOs that confine an estimated 10 million hogs. Parts of the state have the highest density of hog operations in the world. In addition to hog operations, North Carolina produces approximately 785.5 million broiler chickens per year, the fourth most of any state, and approximately 34 million turkeys, the second most of any state. The problem that arises when raising a large number of animals in a limited space is simple enough: animals generate waste, but there is nowhere to put it. For hog and cattle operations, which produce wet waste, the urine and feces generated are collected in open-air, unlined pits often the size of Olympic swimming pools. Across the state, there are over 15,000 of these cesspools brimming with swine waste. After the wet waste is collected in these pits, it is sprayed onto adjacent fields. In North Carolina, many of these fields are in low-lying coastal plains with a high groundwater table, where the fields have been heavily ditched for proper drainage to facilitate crop production. Compounding the problem, the waste is often sprayed in amounts far greater than can be absorbed by crops. The ditches in the fields act as conduits for pollutants such as nutrients (like nitrogen and phosphorous that lead to harmful algal blooms) and fecal bacteria. These pollutants are transported off-site and into public waters. Heavy rainfall or high winds can also transport pollution into surface waters. In addition to these impacts on water quality, CAFOs emit foul odors and air pollution in the form of toxic substances like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide as well as greenhouse gases like methane. Density of Animal Feeding Operations Number of Animal Feeding Operations Because of their waste management practices, some CAFOs pose an imminent threat to public health and the environment in North Carolina, especially whenever a major tropical storm or hurricane hits the state. Even the best-run CAFO can’t stop rising floodwaters from transporting waste from inundated sprayfields or breached lagoons into public waterways. The water pollution in the state has reached such an extreme level that American Rivers listed the Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers (the source of drinking water for 40% of North Carolinians) among their list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® for 2017. The reason they were listed so high? Because of the significant number of CAFOs in the rivers’ floodplains. Pollution from CAFOs doesn’t just threaten the environment, it lowers the quality of life for many North Carolinians. Many scientific studies have confirmed and documented the numerous health effects associated with living near CAFOs in North Carolina. Waterborne health threats range from the spread of disease through pathogens and bacteria in the water, to methemoglobinemia (blue-baby syndrome) caused by high nitrate levels in water. Airborne threats include asthma and other respiratory disorders, which are common especially in the young and elderly, as well as exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Emissions of hazardous gasses from CAFOs are linked to coughing, nausea, headaches, burning eyes, and psychological impairments. Riverkeepers are...working tirelessly to keep our rivers, lakes and streams clean.