CASTALIA — State inspectors are keeping an eye on farms like never before. They've increased manpower for two years after a series of embarassing waste spills occurred in the eastern part of North Carolina. Now, inspectors are pointing to a Nash County farm as the perfect example of why their plan is working.
The attorney general's office says the Yang chicken farm is such a threat to surrounding Nash County wetlands that it should be closed until its waste level is brought down.
Waste from nearly 38,000 birds is nearly brimming over the holding lagoons after months of heavy rain. A broken wall could spill up to 4 million gallons into the Tar River Basin. Associate Attorney General Mary Carraway wants to stop that from happening.
The owner, We Yang, is fighting an order to temporarily shut down the farm, but the state says that this case is a perfect example of why the inspections are necessary.
Inspectors say the fact that they discovered the alleged violations before they became any more serious shows that their inspection program is working.
Before their concentrated statewide effort, they say something like this might have slipped through, with nobody knowing about it until the damage was done. N.C. Environmental Specialist Buster Towell agrees that the program is working.
Inspectors say that most NC farmers do a good job of waste disposal, but they plan to keep up inspections so they can pinpoint the farmers who they say need to change.
The Yang farm is just a few hundred feet from Red Bud Creek. The state says if the lagoon were to break open, the creek would carry the waste straight to the Tar River.
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