Hog producer agrees to big cleanup

By Dana Damico

July 26, 2000 Web posted at: 10:20 AM EDT (1420 GMT)

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The world's largest hog producer announced plans yesterday to eliminate open-air lagoons and the use of lagoon waste as fertilizer on 276 company-owned farms in North Carolina within five years.

The agreement between Smithfield Foods Inc., its subsidiaries and the N.C. Attorney General's office calls for Smithfield to give $15 million to N.C. State University to develop alternate methods to collect and treat hog waste within two years. The company must begin using the new technology within three years after its development.

Smithfield has also agreed to give $50 million to the state -- $2 million a year over 25 years -- for such environmental projects as protecting wetlands and closing abandoned hog lagoons. Up to $2 million can be used to make sure that farms comply with the new standards.

''To me, this is a great step in the right direction,'' said Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham. ''To me, this is a day I never thought I'd see happen.''

Officials from Smithfield and its subsidiaries, which include Brown's of Carolina Inc., Carroll's Foods Inc. and Murphy Family Farms Inc., joined Attorney General Mike Easley and other state officials yesterday to talk about the agreement.

Easley started negotiations with Smithfield last fall after floodwaters caused by Hurricane Floyd led to the flooding of hundreds of lagoons.

''We agreed from the beginning that changes could and should be made to protect the environment,'' Easley said. ''The bottom line is, we don't have to choose between a strong economy and a clean environment.''

Environmentalists applauded the agreement and said they hope that the use of hog lagoons in the state will end. A moratorium on new hog farms, passed in 1997, ends next year. Daniel Whittle, a lawyer for the N.C. Environmental Defense, said he hopes that the General Assembly will pass legislation before the moratorium expires requiring all hog farmers to stop using lagoons within five years.

In addition to its own farms, Smithfield works with more than 1,200 contract farmers who produce hogs for the company. The agreement does not require those farmers to use the new technology, but Smithfield has agreed to give the farmers financial and technical assistance to make the conversion.

Smithfield and its integrated farms account for about 70 percent of the state's hog industry.

State officials are working with others in the hog industry to phase out the use of hog lagoons and sprayfields -- cropland that is fertilized with waste from the lagoons. Easley said that through continued talks or legislation he hopes that the state's other hog producers will comply with the Smithfield agreement. ''We feel pretty comfortable that we'll get everybody on board,'' he said. ''It's going to take a little time.''

Richard Poulson, the vice president and senior adviser to the chairman of Smithfield, said he does not believe that there is a better system available for dealing with waste than the lagoon system the company currently uses. But he said that Smithfield agreed to look to an alternate system, in part because of public opposition. ''We read the papers. We read the polls,'' he said. ''And we believe that a number of well-meaning people truly believe that changes need to be made.''

C.M. Williams, the director of the animal and poultry waste-management center at N.C. State, will lead the project. The goals of the agreement include developing a hog-waste treatment system that minimizes odor, eliminates soil and groundwater contamination and substantially eliminates ammonia emissions.

Williams said that five potential prototypes could be ready for testing on Smithfield's farms in six months. There are other technologies that could be developed to solve the problem, he said.

''Many of those we feel very optimistic about,'' Williams said.

University officials will determine which system will be used, but their choice must be approved by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

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