By Peter Biello
Wilmington, NC – The Neuse River Foundation begins a 51-hour vigil in Raleigh Tuesday for legislation controlling hog farm pollution.
Larry Baldwin is Riverkeeper for the Neuse River Foundation. He says he hopes the vigil will bring attention to legislation raising sanitation standards at hog farms. Baldwin says farmers claim that cleaner technology is prohibitively expensive but believes you can't put a price on clean water.
There is technology available. It may cost a little more money, but what is the cost of our rivers, creeks, streams, and our human population?
If the bill passes, it would ban the construction of new waste storage lagoons and help make the cleanup systems affordable for farmers.