{"id":27419,"date":"2021-02-05T11:45:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T11:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=498225"},"modified":"2021-02-05T11:45:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T11:45:47","slug":"making-fuel-from-pig-poop-sounds-exciting-unless-you-live-nearby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/05\/making-fuel-from-pig-poop-sounds-exciting-unless-you-live-nearby\/","title":{"rendered":"Making fuel from pig poop sounds exciting \u2014 unless you live nearby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The land that Elsie Herring lives on, about 60 acres of farmland<\/a> in southeastern North Carolina, has been in her family since her grandfather purchased the property in 1891 from his former enslaver. Her mother was born and raised there and farmed and cultivated those fields for 99 years. Herring and her older siblings were born and raised on the land, and they continue to live in simple houses and trailers sprinkled throughout the fields.<\/p>\n

But there is also an unwelcome guest on the Herrings\u2019 property. In the late 1980s, a hog farm was constructed next door to the siblings\u2019 homes, on a contested portion of land that Herring believes rightfully belongs to her family. The farm, now owned by Smithfield Foods, the nation’s top producer of pork, is relatively small. There are two hog houses where pigs are lined up side to side, butt to head, with little space to move. These houses have slats in the floor that allow swine excrement to fall into troughs below, from which it is pumped into malodorous lagoons just outside the structures. And not 8 feet from the home of Herring\u2019s late mother, separated by a thin strip of trees, are the so-called spray fields — corn fields on which hog manure is sprayed as a fertilizer.<\/p>\n

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A sprayer soaks a field with liquefied manure and urine from a large-scale hog farm near Wallace, North Carolina.<\/span> AP Photo \/ Allen G. Breed<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>
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Mists of water and swine feces from the operation make their way to Herring\u2019s property, bringing with them a constant, unbearable odor. All she, her family, and neighbors can do is keep the windows and doors shut, and place air fresheners and scented aerosol sprays around the house to mask the smell. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to smell something that smells sweet instead of something that’s just so foul,\u201d Herring told Grist. \u201cYou just have to do what you have to do to make life as pleasant as you can and try to stay safe at the same time,\u201d she added, noting that even though masking the odor presents a short-term solution, it doesn\u2019t protect them from inhaling the airborne fertilizer. Herring says she has developed bronchitis due to the inescapable pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving near these animals, knowing that they are on my family’s land without our permission and having their waste blown on us, having our air and our water polluted,\u201d Herring said, \u201cis like so many injustices are compounded in one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Elsie Herring and her dog stand outside of her late mother\u2019s house, left. Nearby, Smithfield trucks park in front of the proposed Grady Road biogas site, right.<\/span> Courtesy Elsie Herring, Sherri White-Williamson.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Herring and her family are not alone. There are approximately 2,400 similar hog farms in North Carolina, most of them in Duplin County, where she lives, as well as Sampson, Bladen, and Robeson counties, and lagoons and spray fields are the primary ways these pork farms handle their hog waste.<\/p>\n

If the lagoons are left unchecked, the waste that builds up in the pink-tinted waters releases not only extreme odors but methane, ammonia, and other pollutants that can spread into nearby communities. Methane is a greenhouse gas about 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and the other pollutants, like hydrogen sulfide, which is responsible for the odor, can inflame the eyes, skin, and lungs<\/a>. The smell leaves people reluctant to exit their houses for fear of difficulty breathing — even just to hang their laundry outdoors. The predominantly Black and low-income communities surrounding these farms have experienced increased rates of respiratory and heart disease for decades.<\/p>\n

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A map shows the location of hog operations in North Carolina, Duplin and Sampson Counties, seen in red near the center, contain the majority of the state\u2019s hog operations.<\/span> Wing, S., Cole, D., & Grant, G. (2000)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Pork producers say they have a solution, specifically to the methane issue: capturing the gas coming off of these hog lagoons and using it as fuel, a form of \u201crenewable natural gas,\u201d or RNG. The move is pitched as a solution twofer, a win for the community and the climate, too. Environmental advocates and many local residents, however, argue that an investment in so-called biogas will only further perpetuate a practice that harms neighboring communities.<\/p>\n

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In 2007, North Carolina\u2019s government mandated that 0.2 percent of energy from local utilities operating in the state come from renewable natural gas. Energy providers struggled to make it happen until 2018, when Optima KV<\/a>, the first successful swine biogas program in the state, was created in Duplin County. This project collected methane from five hog farms and turned it into energy for Duke Energy, the state\u2019s primary electric utility.<\/p>\n

Now, Smithfield is partnering with another major utility, the Richmond, Virginia\u2013based Dominion Energy, to complete another biogas energy development in Duplin and Sampson Counties by summer 2021. This endeavor, christened the Grady Road Project and headquartered in the town of Turkey, would connect 19 farms in the area with a pipeline and \u201cproduce enough RNG to heat 4,500 homes, or the equivalent of taking 36,000 cars off the road,\u201d said Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of Smithfield Renewables — the pork company\u2019s sustainability department.<\/p>\n

Biogas production works<\/a> by putting covers over hog waste lagoons and collecting the methane that\u2019s created by the microorganisms<\/a> in pig feces (instead of allowing it to enter the atmosphere). The methane gas is then funneled into pipelines — approximately 30 miles of them for the Grady Road Project — that transport it to what will be a newly constructed natural gas processing plant. The processed gas can then be injected into an existing natural gas pipeline and be used as an energy source in individual homes and businesses, as well as power plants. Smithfield says that covering lagoons will not only reduce methane emissions but also the terrible odor caused by other gases produced by pig feces. And because the process reduces greenhouse gas emissions from animal waste, renewable natural gas collected from hog farms can be counted as carbon offset credits for utilities like Dominion that are pledging to go carbon neutral<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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An aerial view of a German biogas power facility adjacent to a dairy farm.<\/span> Sean Gallup \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The Grady Road venture is just one of the renewable natural gas systems that Smithfield and Dominion are planning across the country through their Align RNG<\/a> biogas creation program. In December, Smithfield announced the completion of its first Align RNG system<\/a> in Milford, Utah. It also has plans to bring Align to Virginia in 2022.<\/p>\n

Smithfield claims that the Grady Road Project would be a boon to communities in North Carolina by providing an extra income stream to participating farmers<\/a>, creating construction jobs, and reducing waste odor. \u201cThe bottom line is that this project is good for the environment and a win for local farmers, communities, and energy consumers,\u201d Westerbeek said.<\/p>\n

In January, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, approved<\/a> Smithfield\u2019s most recent air quality permit application for the $30 million project. To move forward with the project<\/a>, each of the 19 farms involved now must receive additional permits. DEQ held a public meeting in late January to discuss permit modifications for four of the 19 farms. Yet public concerns over a lack of transparency about the Grady Road Project dominated the meeting.<\/p>\n

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Environmental advocates and people who live near the Grady Road Project site say that collecting biogas won\u2019t reduce most of the pollution involved in industrial hog farming. They say Smithfield\u2019s endeavor therefore amounts to greenwashing.<\/p>\n

Ryke Longest, co-director of Duke University\u2019s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, pointed out to Grist via email that Align RNG enables Smithfield and Dominion \u201cto greenwash carbon pollution through offsets” and make \u201cmoney off one problem\u201d while leaving the others unsolved. Hog farming produces a lot of pollutants besides the methane harvested by biogas projects. These include ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, fine particulate matter, and other volatile organic compounds. \u201cAlign RNG only controls one of these pollutants,\u201d Longest wrote.<\/p>\n

Some hog lagoons in North Carolina, specifically older pits<\/a>, are unlined<\/a>, meaning that there is no protective layer, usually hard clay, that separates the wastewater from the underlying soil. Westerbeek said that Smithfield\u2019s existing lagoons are \u201cin fact lined and are recognized as so by the state of North Carolina.\u201d But during heavy rains or severe weather events<\/a>, these lagoons often still overflow. That wastewater, filled with nitrates that have been linked to increased miscarriages, infant mortality, and blue baby syndrome, can seep into groundwater<\/a>. Biogas operations could actually make hog farms\u2019 pollution problems worse, as a DEQ environmental engineer acknowledged during the recent public hearing. Covering lagoons is believed to increase concentrations of ammonia in the fuchsia waters.<\/p>\n

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An aerial view of an industrial hog farm operation and waste lagoon in Sampson County near the South River tributary, less than 30 minutes out from Clinton, North Carolina.<\/span> Matt Butler \/ Sound Rivers \/ Waterkeeper Alliance Inc.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cMost of these communities are communities that are also on well water,\u201d said Sherri White-Williamson, the environmental justice policy director for the nonprofit NC Conservation Network. \u201cOftentimes, they’re in situations where there are days when they can’t use the water that comes out of their well because it is so badly polluted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ammonia from hog operations is also connected to increased fish kills in local waterways. In July, thousands of fish were killed<\/a> downstream of hog operations after millions of gallons of feces were washed into the nearby Cape Fear River basin, leading to pollution, harmful algal blooms, and oxygen depletion in the water. In December<\/a>, a similar spill occurred when about 1 million gallons of untreated hog waste leaked from a hog lagoon operated by a DC Mills Farm<\/a> into the Trent River.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers are required to document all activity that could potentially strain the lagoons, such as rainfall and lagoon integrity,\u201d Westerbeek told Grist in response to concerns over water pollution from Smithfield\u2019s lagoons. \u201cLiner conditions are periodically monitored and inspected by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before the Grady Road Project, Smithfield promised to address health concerns associated with its hog farms. In 2000, the company entered into an agreement<\/a> with North Carolina\u2019s attorney general to invest in \u201cenvironmentally superior technology\u201d that would convert its primitive waste management systems, like the lagoons, to something safer. The Raleigh News and Observer reported<\/a> in December that Smithfield still hasn\u2019t fulfilled its end of the bargain, and Elsie Herring believes the reason is financial. \u201cThey invested all this money to identify new systems, then they say it\u2019s too costly to implement them,\u201d she said. \u201cSo their main goal, in the past and now and in the future, is making more money, more money, more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Longest, the company has not yet committed to doing any additional waste treatment beyond covering its North Carolina lagoons to capture methane. And the lagoons are only part of the problem. \u201cThis will do nothing to minimize spraying,\u201d Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette told the Waterkeeper Alliance<\/a> about the use of hog waste as a crop fertilizer.<\/p>\n

Westerbeek responded to criticism about spray field fertilizers, saying they are applied at controlled rates and that detailed records of each farm are kept for state inspection. \u201cThere is nothing in manure that hasn\u2019t already gone through the digestive system of an animal. It is not pollution. Referring to it as so is inaccurate,\u201d said Westerbeek. \u201cFarmers rely on the nutrient value of manure to fertilize their crops, which is why this project does not and should not eliminate the application of nutrients on local farms and why the state recognizes land application of these nutrients as a hog farming industry practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental advocates and residents oppose the continued use of lagoons and spraying, but they will settle for Smithfield implementing techniques known as \u201cadvanced nitrification\/denitrification\u201d or AND, which reduces the amount of nitrogen and ammonia created and released from lagoons. Smithfield reportedly already uses AND techniques in some of its Missouri operations<\/a>. In response to a question about why it doesn\u2019t implement these technologies in North Carolina, Westerbeek said that its operations are in compliance with state regulations. He also said that it is unfair to compare the AND techniques used in other states to the company\u2019s practices in North Carolina because the state\u2019s hog farms are smaller than those in Missouri and there are \u201cdramatically different climate conditions\u201d between regions.<\/p>\n

For residents and advocates, Smithfield\u2019s refusal to consider stronger pollution controls is proof that its biogas plans are really about profit, not community protection. \u201cThey say there is no harm because they\u2019re covering the lagoons,\u201d Herring told NC Policy Watch<\/a> last year in reference to a nuisance lawsuit<\/a> she\u2019s filed against Smithfield. \u201cBut this just enables them to do business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Young hogs, as seen through a gate, on a North Carolina industrial farm<\/span> Gerry Broome \/ AP Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>
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Hog farms contribute to an outsized pollution burden faced by nearby communities who are contending with many more environmental hazards.<\/p>\n

In Robeson County, a predominantly Black and Indigenous community, residents are also grappling with air pollution<\/a> from the local wood pellet industry<\/a>, which cuts down trees and compresses them to be used as biomass energy for many countries in Europe. Air and water quality are also threatened by coal ash waste sites<\/a> from Duke Energy\u2019s W.H. Weatherspoon Power Station, which retired three coal-fired generating units in 2012, not to mention the Robeson County landfill. In Sampson County<\/a>, right next to the Duplin-Sampson County borderline and along the path of the proposed Grady Road pipeline, residents already live less than a quarter-mile from the heavily trafficked Interstate 40. Many are also in close proximity to a Butterball processing plant, poultry and hog farms, and a local trash dump.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re looking at communities that wouldn’t just have this new biogas processor, but it’s going to have all of those other polluting facilities,\u201d said White-Williamson, noting that when the NC Department of Environmental Quality issues air permits to projects like this, they do not account for the pollution stemming from neighboring facilities.<\/p>\n

Biogas may only add to the existing odor and air pollution burden. When the methane gas from hog waste is processed into a usable form, carbon dioxide is released<\/a>. Smithfield predicted in documents submitted to the Division of Air Quality that the central gas processing plant it wants to build in Turkey will produce more than 60 tons of emissions each year, according to NC Policy Watch.<\/a><\/p>\n

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An Align RNG sign located at the entrance to Highway 24, indicating the location of the proposed Grady Road Project biogas site.<\/span> Courtesy of Sherri White-Williamson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Prior to a public hearing last November concerning air permits for the Grady Road Project, Smithfield sent out what White-Williamson described as a \u201cnice, glossy, four-page, well-produced propaganda piece\u201d to those communities that would be impacted by the Align RNG construction. Around the same time, White-Williamson said a small 3-by-4 foot sign appeared at the entrance to Highway 24, difficult to see unless “you were driving slow” and knew what you were looking for. For some, this was the first indication that the project was even happening. Then, at the hearing, Smithfield shared the locations of only four of the 19 farms involved in the project. Despite the company\u2019s outreach, White-Williamson says most of the residents in the pipeline\u2019s path were unaware that the project was happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is being sold as just a win-win kind of solution, and yet, there is a severe lack of transparency when it comes to educating and informing the public — even the community in which it’s going to be located — about the details of the project,\u201d said Brian Powell, the communications director for NC Conservation Network.<\/p>\n

Westerbeek said that it is \u201cboth surprising and concerning\u201d that some residents feel that Smithfield has not been transparent about the project, stating that Smithfield has \u201cproactively engaged the community over the last 18 months and received notable support.\u201d Outreach included sending out mailers like the one White-Williamson referred to, as well as publishing ads in local newspapers, holding virtual town halls, and hosting an open house in summer 2019.<\/p>\n

With regard to hog farm locations, Westerbeek said that all North Carolina hog farm locations are \u201cpublicly available through the DEQ.\u201d However, in December, the agency sent a letter to Smithfield<\/a> asking it to share the locations of all the farms that will be connected to the Grady Road Project, a request that Smithfield denied<\/a> on the grounds that the information was outside the purview of its air permit request. When they asked again<\/a>, Smithfield responded almost three weeks later, once again refusing<\/a> their request. DEQ approved the permit anyway, and residents have still not received any information on the locations of all the farms that will be participating in the project or the exact renewable natural gas pipeline itself.<\/p>\n

This is not a new pattern<\/a>. For years, community members and environmental organizations like the Waterkeeper Alliance have reported hog farm violations, like illegal spraying and dumping waste into ditches and streams, to the DEQ. But the agency has often said there wasn\u2019t anything it could do. And White-Williamson said it\u2019s common for the DEQ to approve permit applications for hog farms without all the requested location or emissions information.<\/p>\n

When DEQ Secretary Michael Regan<\/a>, who was recently nominated to be President Joe Biden\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency administrator, was appointed to the position in 2017, communities had hope for a change in the system. At first, the DEQ did issue deficiency notices<\/a> to several farms, and it also agreed to settlements<\/a> with advocates and community members in which it promised to be tougher on hog farms. Many in the community, White-Williamson included, are still waiting to see this more aggressive regulatory oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the department decides they need more information, they request that information, and then the industry basically says \u2018hell no,\u2019 and you issue it anyway,\u201d White-Williamson said. \u201cThat gives the industry the impression that they can do whatever they want.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the point of having a Department of Environmental Quality?\u201d<\/p>\n

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The renewable natural gas that would flow through the Grady Road Project tends to be more expensive than conventional natural gas. But Randy Wheeless, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, which invests in biogas from the previously completed Optima KV project, told Grist that RNG has an added benefit — it represents an attempt to make the best of an unpleasant situation. Covering hog farm lagoons not only allows for the harvesting of methane, but it also eliminates the smell from the waste ponds, he said.<\/p>\n

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Waste from hogs owned by Smithfield Foods flows into the waste pond at a farm in Farmville, North Carolina.<\/span> Gerry Broome \/ AP Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cBiogas is definitely more expensive than regular natural gas\u201d — around eight times more expensive<\/a>, Wheeless said. \u201cAnd so if we were going just by economics alone, renewable natural gas would be a tough sell.\u201d He added that the only reason Duke Energy is investing in biogas is because of the state mandate.<\/p>\n

Despite its economic limitations, new swine biogas operations are sprouting up in states like Missouri, Utah, and Virginia. And renewable natural gas from poultry litter and dairy farms<\/a> has been developing in states like California<\/a>, Maryland<\/a>, and New York<\/a>. At the same time, operations in Colorado<\/a> and Michigan<\/a> have been shut down due to complaints of severe odor during processing, waste seepage, and explosion risks.<\/p>\n

Environmental nonprofits and communities have not completely ruled out these energy sources as solutions to the climate crisis and to local environmental health issues. But they\u2019re calling for systems that operate using the best available technology to reduce pollution — without lagoons and spray fields — and operations that are informed by community input and greater attempts at transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there were a way to reduce the number of hogs or the manner in which the hogs are raised in those areas, that could help reduce some of the impact in the communities,\u201d said White-Williamson. \u201cIf the industry just tried to treat people who live in those communities like human beings, that would help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herring, who has been contending with the smell, flies, and buzzards of hog farms since the 1990s, made a similar point. \u201cWhy should anyone have to live like this?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhy can\u2019t they ask themselves that question: Would they want this done to them?\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline Making fuel from pig poop sounds exciting \u2014 unless you live nearby<\/a> on Feb 5, 2021.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Grist<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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