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."
