If Georgia hog farmers don’t control odors, their neighbors
may raise a stink.

It happened in North Carolina. Heavy summer rains flooded
waste lagoons on some big hog
farms in 1995. The state quickly made new laws to control how
large and where lagoons
could be.

"It stands to reason that the same thing could happen in
Georgia," said David
Bishop, an animal scientist with the University of Georgia
Extension Service.

Bishop urges hog farmers to act before problems surface. He
and other livestock
specialists figure it’s only a matter of time before they have
to act.

People are becoming aware of potential problems, he said. And
they’re less willing to
put up with them, pushing politicians for stricter controls.

The laws to force the farmer’s hand, he said, have been
there, in the Clean Water Act,
since 1972. But the funds to fully enforce them haven’t been.

It’s not easy for Georgia livestock farmers to safely store
and dispose of their
animals’ waste. It’s especially tough for pork, poultry and
dairy farmers.

Many build waste-storage lagoons. They build these ponds by
strict guidelines on their
depth, where they’re built and how they’re sealed. Careful
design helps control odor,
prevent runoff and keep the raw waste out of nearby streams or
other waterways.

"A properly designed, built and maintained lagoon has
just about no odor,"
Bishop said.

That may not be true when the farmer pumps the wastewater
onto his fields. About 2
percent of Georgia crop-irrigation water comes from wastewater
lagoons on 177 farms,
Bishop said.

"Farmers use the wastewater as fertilizer, which helps
reduce their costs,"
he said. "The problem comes if the sprayed water drifts,
carrying the waste odor with
it."

As people move to the country near hog farms, he said, they
raise more concerns about
waste handling and storage.

Farmers have limits on how far from a home, school or church
they can build a livestock
facility. But the reverse isn’t true. Builders may put a new
home closer to a livestock
farm than the other way around.

The farmers can avoid odor issues by properly maintaining
their lagoons. Carefully
timing wastewater pumping and spraying can help prevent
problems, too.

"That’s just being a good neighbor," Bishop
said.

Some environmental regulations differ with the size of the
hog farm, he said. But
others apply to all farms, no matter what size.

"If a farmer releases raw waste into a waterway, the
Environmental Protection
Agency can shut him down," he said. "No explanations.
No questions asked."

Guidelines designed to protect the environment can raise
costs, though. Compliance can
be a big part of a farm budget, Bishop said, especially in very
large farms.

Who pays for all this? Eventually, the people who buy the
pork.

Stricter enforcement will force one of two things on the
farm. It will raise farmers’
costs. Or it will force some out of business. "Both would
likely increase retail pork
prices," Bishop said.

In the end, though, the responsibility for raising hogs or
other confined livestock
without harming the environment rests on the farmer.

"Some farmers may say they can’t afford to rebuild or
change their waste
systems," Bishop said. "They have to realize they
can’t afford not to."