Farm bill clears NC Senate, heads to Cooper for signature

Senate Bill 605 tweaks a number of agriculture and forestry policies around the state, with only one section in the final bill raising controversy. That section would let hog farmers install biogas collectors over waste ponds to collect methane without having to get an individual permit from the state.

Instead, the changes would all be allowed at once via a general permit. This is the same method the state uses to permit hog farms themselves, through a general permit renewed every five years.

The bill passed the Senate Tuesday 35-11. All of the no votes came from Democrats, but the bill had bipartisan support, with eight Democrats joining the Republican majority to vote yes.

"It seemed like the House was totally against it," Jackson said Tuesday. "My Senate Democrats were against it. So, it seemed like wait and fight another day."

Once the bill gets delivered to the governor, he has 10 days to sign it into law, veto it and send it back to the legislature for more debate or just let it become law without his signature.

The North Carolina Sierra Club, which fought the biogas language, called on Cooper to veto, arguing that the bill will "lock in the harmful lagoon-and-sprayfield waste system used at large hog operations instead of encouraging installation of more environmentally friendly systems."

"This legislation will bring continued grief to people who live near factory hog farms and those of us who care about the air and water near them," Sierra Club Acting Director Cynthia Satterfield said in a statement.