IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 3
and people already living in and dependent on the water in areas where
hog factories settle.
One of the most severely affected aquifers in the nation is the Ogallala,
which has been estimated to have possibly 50 years of water left at the
current rates of irrigation. 44 It has been estimated that Texas County, in
the Oklahoma Panhandle, uses around 58,653,180,000 gallons a year from
the High Plains (Ogallala) aquifer to grow 90,000 acres of irrigated corn
for livestock feed. This use accounts for 92% of water withdrawal in
Texas County. The growth of intensive hog operations accounted for a
66% increase in livestock water use between 1990 and 1995. Between
1990 and 1998, the number of pigs in Oklahoma jumped from 230,000 to
1.98 million, with Seaboard Corporation accounting for 80% of the
increase. 45
Extractive groundwater pumping can also lead to pollution by saltwater
intrusion. 46,47 A proper balance must be kept between groundwater
recharge and pumping. When massive quantities of freshwater are pumped
from underground aquifers faster than they can be recharged, it is possible
for the saline water to intrude into the freshwater aquifer to replace the
freshwater extracted. This pollutes the fresh groundwater source. Although
saltwater intrusion is a particularly important concern along coastal areas,
many fresh water aquifers in the Midwest also are underlain by saltwater
aquifers and susceptible to saltwater intrusion. 48 Hog factories take
massive quantities of water from the ground. Yet few, if any, large-scale,
hog farm permitting processes require that hog factory owners consider
and follow proper procedures to ensure that groundwater is recharged.
Hog Factory Impacts on Surface Water
Manure can pollute surface water by runoff from fields, by accidental or
intentional spills from pipes and hoses or lagoons, by deposition of
airborne ammonia, or by single catastrophic events such as when the berm
around an earthen lagoon bursts. 49
In June 1995, 25 million gallons of liquid manure broke through the berm
surrounding a hog lagoon in Onslow County, North Carolina. The manure
flowed over a neighbor's cropland and into the New River, creating the
biggest lagoon spill on record and eventually killing 10,000,000 fish. The
spill caused the closing of 364,000 acres of coastal wetlands to shell
fishing. 50 The day before, a million-gallon hog lagoon spill had occurred
in Sampson County. Later that same year, four more spills occurred in
North Carolina, including 8.6 million gallons of liquid manure that spilled
from a poultry farm. 51 The North Carolina legislature responded by
passing a law requiring operators to take classes on manure waste disposal
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