Clyburn (SC06) - Statement - Hog Farms Don’t Pass Smell Test

I am unalterably opposed to additional industrial hog farms locating in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Although I do not have jurisdiction over how our State decides to handle this issue, I applaud Governor Jim Hodges recent action imposing a temporary ban on any new hog farms and am hopeful the legislature will act on this issue soon.

I have been linked with this issue before. Ironically in last year’s “Pig Book” published by the so-called Citizens Against Government Waste, I was accused of wasting taxpayers money because I helped secure $300,000 in federal funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s regional research station in Florence to identify cost-efficient technology to replace hog waste lagoons. I made no apologies then and believe the public’s outrage and the Governor’s actions vindicate my actions and underscore the Research Center’s vision. And until the type of research they are conducting finds a better alternative, I support imposing a permanent moratorium on hog waste lagoons in South Carolina.

I believe allowing industrial hog farms to proliferate in the Pee Dee, as they have in the eastern part of North Carolina, is tantamount to destroying our water supply and ruining our tourism industry. Please allow me to address both of these points.

First, hog farming is the single biggest threat to the water quality in North Carolina. The breeching of waste lagoons when Hurricane Floyd flooded the eastern half of the State in 1999, is an example of what citizens in the Pee Dee could be forced to endure if these facilities are allowed to be built. The most recent series of hurricanes to pass through South Carolina have had their greatest impacts on the Pee Dee, and this region will always be vulnerable to such weather conditions. We can’t allow these farms to come into an area that we know could meet with the same devastating results.

Second, the hog farms will have a two-fold affect on the tourism industry. Tourism depends on good quality water, whether it is the streams that feed the Great Pee Dee River or the beaches along the Grand Strand where the water will eventually flow. In addition, the odor hog waste lagoons produce will effectively render the surrounding area useless for any outdoor recreational activity and unpleasant for citizens living in the area.

As part of that effort, I am working to shore up the water infrastructure needs for counties in the region. Officials in these counties are also joining my efforts to create an economic development corridor along I-95. Still another avenue for economic development has been put in place. Back in 1995, I successfully negotiated to have the route for Interstate 73/74 run through Marion County to the Conway Bypass with a spur through Florence and Williamsburg counties down to US 521 in Andrews. All of these efforts taken as a whole will serve to create good opportunities for positive, sustainable investments in the area in the very near future.

After laying the groundwork for viable economic development focusing on light manufacturing, recreation and tourism, I would hate to see these plans jeopardized by an influx of water poisoning, foul smelling industrial hog farms. These facilities will make it nearly impossible to attract any future development in the region. So rather than benefitting the economy, they will have a chilling as well as foul smelling effect.

We should consider the North Carolina experience as instructive and prohibit these industrial hog farms from locating in the Pee Dee.

Besides destroying the water quality, and the recreation and tourism industry, it will devastate economic development possibilities for as far into the future as can be imagined. If bringing home the bacon must have a negative connotation let it be figuratively and not literally. This is one proposal which really does not pass the smell test.