Just over 25 years ago, state regulators and industry leaders agreed to address pollution from North Carolina’s massive hog industry. At issue were millions of gallons of hog waste stored in open, unlined lagoons — an outdated system that created unbearable odors and polluted nearby communities. The state negotiated the pact with Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest pork producer. But a quarter-century later, little has changed. Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Sorg wrote about why the Smithfield Agreement failed and joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: Take us back to when this agreement was made and give us an idea of how big the hog industry had become in eastern North Carolina and the problems associated with hog waste.
Lisa Sorg: Back in the day — and I'm talking late 90s, even the 1980s — there were a lot of hog farms in North Carolina. But they were small. It would be like having a lot of neighborhood grocery stores and then all of a sudden they all disappear and become a big box store. So what happened is the hog industry consolidated and there were more hogs on fewer farms. When that happened, you have to manage the waste. The lagoon and spray field system — what that actually is — if you have a concentrated animal feeding operation, they're known as CAFOs for short, you basically dig a giant hole in the ground.
When I say giant, I mean football-field-sized; you flush the barns and all that waste goes into this cesspool. To keep the cesspool from overflowing, you have to spray the liquid on a farm field, which they then use for fertilizer to maybe grow hay. The issue is these lagoons/cesspools: they stink, they leak, they breach. The spray field system — all that waste goes into the groundwater and it can eventually contaminate the drinking water. So there are odor and water issues associated with this waste management system.
Terry: So, in 2000, then-state Attorney General Mike Easley — who later became governor — negotiated what became known as the Smithfield Agreement. What did it include?
Sorg: There were two prongs to the Smithfield Agreement. One was something called environmental enhancement grants, in which Smithfield agreed to pay roughly $2 million a year for 25 years to the state of North Carolina that then would pass on to nonprofits that wanted to improve the environment. You might want to restore a buffer near a stream, or many, many abandoned hog lagoons were closed, or you want to restore a wetland — things like that. So those environmental enhancement grants were the bright spot of the Smithfield Agreement. The bad part of the Smithfield Agreement was that the company also paid $50 million for researchers to study something called environmentally superior technologies.
You may see these referred to as ESTs. This was supposed to be something that phased out this lagoon and spray field system. But what happened is the new technology also had to be “economically feasible,” and there was a lot of dissent about what that meant. Ultimately, there was a stalemate and Smithfield said these technologies ‘they cost too much; we're not going to do it.’
Terry: So why has the agreement, in the words of some advocates, “failed miserably?” Is it just because of what you said? Smithfield saying they're not going to do it?
Sorg: Yes, there are a couple of reasons. One of the things that happened was that the economic subcommittee — there was a majority report and a minority report. They differed on what this technology should cost. The amazing thing, though, is that the technology that is called Super Soils, which seemed to emerge as the contender, eliminated 99% of the ammonia of the pathogens in the air. It was incredibly effective and Smithfield said, ‘no, too much money.’
Even when the technology improved and the cost got even cheaper, still, Smithfield said ‘no, too much money.’ So the water contamination continues and the air contamination continues. Nothing has changed in terms of the day-to-day life of the people who live near these CAFOs.
Terry: Going back to the economic feasibility part of the Smithfield Agreement, who decides that?
Sorg: Ultimately, the person who decided was Dr. Mike Williams. He was the designee by the Attorney General to come to a conclusion about what would constitute an economically feasible technology. Ultimately, he decided it was just too close to call. So he did not say that Smithfield had to install this technology. The other rub of this is Smithfield wanted any new technology, the cost of that, to be compared to the existing cost of what it cost to install a lagoon and spray field. Well, it doesn't get much cheaper than digging a hole in the ground and putting waste in it. And it had a five-year limit. So if an economically feasible alternative was not identified within five years, then they never had to do it. So there were a lot of really technical provisions in the Smithfield Agreement that ultimately favored Smithfield.
Terry: So you've got some residents saying 25 years later that this agreement failed miserably. What is Smithfield saying about it?
Sorg: Smithfield contends that the technology is still not economically feasible, and they like to point out they've given to food banks and they have all these community projects. That's all well and good. I'm sure that's done some good in the world. But still in eastern North Carolina you have thousands of people who are, I'm not overstating this, living in misery. If you've ever driven down to eastern North Carolina on a particularly humid day and smelled the stench, it will take you back.
Terry: So what happens now? Is this fight still going on, or is that it?
Sorg: That’s pretty much it. The Smithfield Agreement is winding down. There wasn't really a time limit on it, but the payments are going to wind down soon. Of course, the technology had five years to be identified.
Given what the political climate is, I don't see a Smithfield Agreement 2.0 appearing at this point. But clearly there has to be some answer that is enforceable to clean up these huge lagoons and spray field systems that are so environmentally harmful. Right now it's just the status quo.
