According to the North Carolina Department of Environment Quality, pig farm owner Douglas L. Lanier of Jones County discharged nearly one million gallons of hog waste into a nearby wooded area near his farm. He has been fined more than $60,000 and cited with “multiple violations of his farm’s general permit, including a condition not to discharge wastewater from hog waste lagoons into surface water.”1
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But this is not Lanier’s first environmental violation. In total, he’s been issued citations in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and now 2018 (a fact the DEQ took into account when they set his fine).
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Michael Regan, secretary for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality said in a press release.
“Our investigation revealed this to be an egregious violation of state laws and we will hold the responsible party accountable. It is totally unacceptable and illegal for someone to knowingly discharge contaminated wastewater that threatened our rivers and streams.”2
The investigation into the discharge, which eventually made its way into a tributary of the Trent River, began after an anonymous tip. Testing there revealed “high levels of wastewater in samples collected in the tributary of the Trent River and on the farm property.”3Thankfully, no impacts on the public water supply have been reported.
These farms continue to be dangerous. When are we going to stop this madness?
