House OKs plan for any NC hog farm to collect methane gas

The hog farm permits are part of the General Assembly's annual Farm Act, which passed the House on a bipartisan 75-32 vote. The legislation now heads back to the Senate for a final vote, but it's expected that the House and the Senate will ultimately have to negotiate a compromise bill.

Right now, any hog farmer who wants to cover a waste lagoon to capture gas rising off the pond so it can be burned for energy has to get a permit to do so. Senate Bill 605 would create a blanket permit for the state, allowing any farm in North Carolina to implement a methane collection operation.

The new process would be similar to the existing process for hog farms in general, about 2,100 of which are all covered under one general permit that gets renewed every five years by the state.

Rep. Raymond Smith, D-Wayne, tried to excise the hog farm provision from the Farm Act, saying the state should help farmers examine new technologies for dealing with hog waste instead of changing the permit process.

"The permitting process as it stands works just fine," said Smith, who represents an area where hog farms are located.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said the process goes beyond simply throwing a tarp over a waste lagoon, noting pipelines would have to run from farms to nearby methane processing operations. Those pipelines wouldn't be regulated by the state Department of Environmental Quality, she said, predicting problems with gas leaks and explosions.

But Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, and other Democrats called the blanket methane collection permit "a step in the right direction."

"Getting rid of the lagoons completely would mean getting rid of animals completely, and that's not a solution," agreed Rep. Jeffrey McNeely, R-Iredell.

Smith's amendment failed 47-60.

Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, urged Democrats to support the bill to increase the likelihood of Gov. Roy Cooper signing it.

"This is important to the agricultural community," Dixon said, calling universal permits "an accepted way of doing business" in many industries.

Fourteen Democrats, including Smith, joined with the Republican majority in voting for the bill.