TELL NC REGULATORS:
"NO NEW PERMITS WITHOUT PROTECTION"

The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is seeking public input on a new General Permit regulating dangerous pollution from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and
hog-waste biogas, a dirty source of energy that is converted from untreated waste at CAFOs.

To adequately protect NC communities from this toxic pollution, NCDEQ must ensure the new permit requirements include:

EQUITY
Hog operations are often located near Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-wealth communities that are overburdened by pollution and sickness from many harmful sources. Currently, NCDEQ has failed to identify and protect communities facing such “cumulative impacts.”

TRANSPARENCY
The public deserves to know what, when, where, and how much animal waste is being created and spread on cropland in NC communities. NCDEQ should require CAFOs to submit this information online for the record.

ACCOUNTABILITY
Many neighbors of hog operations depend on wells for drinking water, yet, NCDEQ requires groundwater monitoring at only a handful of facilities. We need better monitoring because North Carolinians deserve to know what’s in their water.

TECHNOLOGY
The industry uses a cheap, outdated system to manage huge amounts of hog waste, even though cleaner and more protective alternatives are available and affordable. The lagoon and sprayfield system has failed time and time again to protect public health and natural resources, and should be replaced with cleaner technologies.