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WASTE PLUME RELEASED FROM NORTH CAROLINA HOG FARM |
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| USA: May 21, 1999 | ||
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KENANSVILLE, N.C. - North Carolina water quality officials were tracking a plume of 1.5 million gallons of hog waste that poured into a creek and nearby swamp from a waste lagoon on a farm owned by the nation's largest hog producer.
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The hog waste flowed into nearby Persimmon Creek, which feeds into the Northeast Cape Fear River and an adjacent swamp. State water-quality officials were concerned the waste would choke off the supply of oxygen in the water, and found "a good number" of minnows and darters lining the banks of the creek and swamp gasping for air, Cox said. "They were putting a boat in the water to try to take a better look at where the plume and pollution had travelled," Cox said. "They will be looking at problems with fish, checking oxygen levels." A thick layer of sludge remained on the lagoon bottom, though some of the solid waste likely escaped when the lagoon emptied, Cox said. A 25-foot-wide break in the dam remained. Agents with the State Bureau of Investigation were looking into whether vandals Monday breached the lagoon's dam at Murphy Family Farms near Kenansville, about 70 miles southeast of the state capital Raleigh. "They (the SBI) had engineers coming out to look at the site to get a better idea of what caused the breach. They haven't come to any conclusions as to what caused the breach," said Jill Cox, a spokeswoman with the state Division of Water Quality. The state's largest lagoon spill occurred in June 1995, when more than 25 million gallons of hog waste spilled from a ruptured lagoon at OceanviewFarms in neighbouring Onslow County.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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