THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 24, 1995 TAG: 9506240328
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHLAND LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
A hog farm where a waste storage lagoon collapsed, spilling millions of gallons of foul water into tributaries of the New River, may have violated the waste management plan it agreed to follow, a state official said Friday.
Some 25 million gallons of wastewater poured out of the lagoon at Oceanview Farms on Wednesday and into two streams feeding the New River.
Wildlife officials reported small fish kills in the Longbranch and Donohoe Branch streams, two tributaries of the New River.
By Friday, the plume of wastewater had made its way down the New River as far south as Tar Landing, about three miles north of Jacksonville, said Don Reuter, a spokesman for the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
``The plume is visually obvious,'' said Jim Boushhardt of the state Division of Environmental Management's regional office in Wilmington. ``The river has definitely been impacted.''
Officials continued to take water samples Friday and monitor the waterways for the effect on fish. They also are checking the farm's practice of reducing the volume of waste in the lagoon.
``We're focusing our attention on the spraying practice at the facility,'' Reuter said. ``We've received some information that the dike may have overflowed.''
Hog farmers who use lagoons to store animal waste typically spray wastewater from the lagoons onto nearby fields. The spraying helps control the volume of waste in a lagoon.
Managers of the Oceanview farm told state officials that they did not keep records of their spraying practices, Reuter said.
``From what I understand, that's not common among their competitors,'' Reuter said. ``If they can show us that they sprayed every sunny day during the winter, that would be to their benefit - to show us that they did everything they could to keep down the level of the lagoon.''
Reuter also said the farm operators failed to plant a winter cover crop of rye on the spray fields to help absorb nitrogen in the wastewater.
``It doesn't appear that that's been done,'' he said. ``Their management system calls for them to do that, and it doesn't appear that they've done it.''
A call to Coastal Ag-Development Inc., which manages Oceanview Farms Ltd. Partnership, was not immediately returned Friday.
Hog farmers must submit a waste management plan to get an operating permit. Those who fail to follow through can face separate fines of up to $10,000 a day for violating any one of several regulations on managing animal wastes. Fines also can be assessed for fish kills, based on species and poundage.
The 7 1/2-acre lagoon was the first to receive a permit under stricter animal-waste management rules adopted by state lawmakers two years ago.
State officials will order the company to clean up all the remaining solids from the spill, Reuter said.
``We're going to tell them either by shovel or bucket or whatever, any solids on adjacent farm land or in the tributaries, they have to clean it up,'' he said.
Officials investigating the spill will try to determine whether a diesel pump and pipe built into a wall of the lagoon was an unauthorized modification, Reuter said. They also want to know the level of wastewater in the lagoon before the break, and whether the earthen dike supporting the lagoon was weakened by recent heavy rains. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Environmental officials work with earth-moving equipment this week
to shore up the hole left after a hog-waste storage lagoon collapsed
in Richland on Wednesday.
by CNB