UN ASPECT TROP SOUVENT IGNORE DE L' ÉLEVAGE, LA POLLUTION DES SOLS ET DES EAUX... PAR DES BACTÉRIES MORTELLES DUE AUX DÉCHETS, TEL LE E COLI
ICI RAPPORT DE CAROLINE DU NORD
SOURCE ET SUITE
Waste water full of excrement and urine is being dumped into the
ecosystems of North Carolina, causing untold environmental damage and
putting human health at risk, yet the local government seems completely
uninterested in investigating the situation.
Researchers found that nearly a quarter of water samples tested in
the region contained unsafe amounts of E.coli and fecal bacteria, a
direct result of the waste from huge scale factory farms.
North Carolina produces more than 4 billion pounds of pork per year,
making it the second largest pork producer in the U.S., after Iowa. In
some regions, such as Duplin County, there are more pigs than humans,
with farmers raising 2 million pigs each year in a region with a
population of just 60,000.
Despite the huge concentration of pigs in this region, government
laws classify huge factory farm operations with thousands of pigs as
“non-discharge facilities,” meaning that they are not regulated on the
amount of sewage waste they produce, nor where they dump it.
Inside the factory farms, the pig’s excrement and urine is washed out
of the pens through holes in the floor, and piped in to huge open lakes
on the property. As there is a constant need for more waste to be
pumped out, water from the sewage lakes are sprayed onto the surrounding
agricultural fields at a rate of hundreds of gallons per minute, and it
eventually seeps through into the waterways. The water is also
indiscriminately dispersed into the surrounding environment and people’s
homes during the spraying process.
Shocking Pollution Statistics
From 2010 to 2011 a research team from the university of North Carolina and John Hopkins University conducted extensive testing in the waters of North Carolina,
specifically testing the water upstream and downstream from fields near
the state’s major factory farms. Due to the lax regulations on the
treatment of waste from these farms, millions of tons of sewage water
are ending up in the waterways, and the stats are from the study are
extremely worrying.
Out of 187 samples from Duplin County, over 40 percent were found to have fecal coliform and animal fecal bacteria counts exceeding safe water guidelines
set by state and federal authorities. Almost a quarter (23 percent) of
the samples tested were found to contain unsafe amounts of the E.coli
bacteria, and around two thirds (61 percent) contained excessive amounts
of Enterococcus.
Why Would the Authorities Ignore the Issue?
With such alarming readings being found in the county’s natural water
systems, you might expect the government to be jumping into action to
prevent the environmental and public health disaster from becoming any
worse, but instead, they have done almost nothing about it.
Drew Elliot from the North Carolina Department of Environment and
Natural Resources said that the study “seems to be inconclusive.” His
statement also claimed that, “The information presented provides an
indication of overall water quality in these [waters]; however, it is
not an indication of a discharge of waste.” When questioned on the issue
further, the response was that it was difficult to determine the source
of the contamination as fecal pollution could include “any warm blooded
animals and failing septic or sewage collection systems.”
It seems as if the large scale farming operations who are clearly
responsible for this dangerous water pollution are being given a free
pass from the authorities, who are refusing to accept the evidence
presented to them by scientific researchers.
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