Tropical Storm Debby is hardly the first weather event with intense rainfall in North Carolina — yet the state remains woefully underprepared, leaving millions of people at risk.
What's happening?
In 2018, Hurricane Florence swept across the state, causing massive flooding and devastation. One of the most unfortunate effects was the overflowing of hog lagoons — large-scale operations that contain vats of a bright-pink bacterial slurry consisting of hog urine, feces, and other waste.
When Florence flooded these lagoons, over 110 of them released this bacterial sludge out into the surrounding waterways, the New York Times reported.
That was six years ago — yet essentially nothing has changed and no flood-prevention mechanisms have been installed since then. And with Tropical Storm Debby earlier in August, the Times reported, the state risks repeating an unsavory history.
The pig lagoons aren't the only threat; water treatment plants have also been leaking sewage into nearby waterways as they overflow.
The Times quoted Gov. Roy Cooper, who spoke at a news conference about the "unrelenting rain and destruction" facing the state. "This is not over," he said. "We're concerned about river flooding."
Why is this concerning?
Not only do tropical storms like this one leave thousands of people without power, but the pollution of waterways often has longer-term ripple effects. These include diseases that spread through the ingestion of contaminated water, such as cholera, as well as vector-borne diseases spread by mosquitoes that breed in the stagnant water, per Wellcome.
The Times quoted senior attorney Blakely Hildebrand at the Southern Environmental Law Center, who warned of the continued damage facilities like hog lagoons would continue to wreak if left open to flooding.
"Not only do these facilities contribute to climate change, leading to more intense and frequent storms," Hildebrand said, referencing the high pollution output of industrial agriculture, "but they are significant vulnerabilities as facilities flood in major rain events."
What's being done about this?
Officials were primarily concerned with keeping North Carolinians safe, urging them to stay informed and follow any evacuation orders given.
For the hog lagoons, a possible solution has been explored with the similarly pollutive coal ash industry, the Times explained. With similar open-air pits that led to contamination during flooding, the industry was pressured to relocate waste facilities to properly stored traditional landfills farther from flood areas, greatly reducing the contamination risk. A similar approach to hog lagoons could, at the very least, minimize the threats from those facilities.
And broadly, large-scale industry and governmental changes, as well as grassroots efforts by individuals, can all propel us toward a more stable climate future with fewer intense storms like Debby.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
