Biohazards, Toxins In North Carolina Floodwaters

The 40 inches of rain Hurricane Florence has dumped on North Carolina is leaving a trail of industrial waste as runoff from coal ash pits, inundated sewage systems, and feces from dozens of hog farms pour into rivers, lakes and neighborhoods. North Carolina is home to the densest population of hogs in the country with 2,100 hog farms producing an estimated 40 million gallons of hog poop a day, most of which ends up being stored in 3,000 open-pit earthen basins known as “lagoons.” Before Hurricane Florence made landfall, hog farms had been frantically trying to lower the level of those lagoons by spraying the waste on fields. But as of noon Monday, two hog lagoons in the hurricane area had been breached, seven had overflowed’ and four had been inundated.