'The smell is absolutely horrendous': Small towns want company to clean up roadway animal waste spills

Hogs and poultry are the life blood of agriculture in eastern North Carolina, providing much needed jobs and food. The combined, the two industries have an estimated $50 billion economic impact in our state.

But those billion industries are creating some disgusting scenes on many small town Main Streets. We’re talking about animal guts trucked from local rendering plants spilled onto local roads. In some cases, full carcasses have littered the streets.

Through various media accounts, WRAL Investigates found dozens of spills in North Carolina over the past couple of years, from Sampson, Duplin, Cumberland, Anson, Union, Gaston, Catawba and Cleveland Counties– and more. The same company has also been responsible for spills in Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.

"It’s not fair to our citizens and it’s not fair to the ag community.all of which are trying to do the right thing," says Clinton Mayor Lew Starling. Spills in his town have become so frustrating and frequent, about 20 in the past year, Starling, the city manager, police and fire chiefs respond to every single one.

"Arriving on the scene obviously you see the roadway, the carcasses, the parts all over the place and the smell is absolutely horrendous. And you’re having to stand out in this for hours," Clinton Police Chief Anthony Davis told WRAL Investigates.

His officers direct traffic while city and state crews are often left to cleanup the mess because drivers with unsecured loads leave the scene.

Part of the frustration, according to Mayor Starling, is how much his town can’t do to fight the spill. "Well, we have no recourse," he told us. The local penalty when they catch the culprit is just a $50 civil fine, with the rare chance of up to $5,000 in state penalties.

Darling Ingredients, one of the nation’s largest rendering companies owns this plant in Rose Hill in neighboring Duplin County. They turn processed animal leftovers into usable proteins and fertilizer. Still, there is waste product that is trucked out and taken to landfills.

After every single one of the spills linked to a Darling (or previously Valley Proteins) truck or subcontractor, the mayor wrote a letter to the company. He didn’t exactly get the response he was looking for.

"The equipment is inadequate. Probably the training is inadequate and clearly their response is inadequate, the penalties are inadequate, which are basically non-existent," Starling said.

Department of Agriculture records obtained by WRAL Investigates show Valley Proteins, the company bought by Darling, racked up $25,000 in fines for spills across the state, mainly outside of Charlotte Yet, the Department of Agriculture wiped away the penalties if the company filled out a questionnaire about each spill and agreed to make improvements.

Outside the Darling plant we were confronted by employees who didn’t want to answer our questions on-camera. Instead the company’s corporate public relations sent this statement:

"We are continually working to improve our operations, and we take incidents very seriously…we have made a number of improvements in recent months to help prevent and reduce the likelihood of any incidents, including: adjusting transportation routes to limit truck presence in the City of Clinton…technology to monitor driver compliance, and spill-prevention equipment."

For towns, the situation goes beyond a smelly nuisance. It’s also a danger for drivers in some cases. "You can see here the vehicle drove through the spillage and spun out and ended up in the guardrail," Chief Davis described while showing us pictures of a crash scene.

While hog farming is so closely regulated, Mayor Starling argues the law needs teeth to better protect communities dealing with nasty waste spills from trucks. "I can assure you if was a crime for the driver to do that I don’t think he’d be driving off," the mayor said. "But then this little subset is allowed to do whatever they want to do with no fines or penalties. It’s not fair and it’s giving everybody a black eye."

State lawmakers are now debating one remedy. Senate Bill 582 includes a provision to make leaving the scene of a spill a class 3 misdemeanor.

So what can residents do?

If you see any spills occur, contact local police or law enforcement.

Additionally, citizens can help by identifying trucks if they leave the scene.

Town officials are responsible for pursuing civil action.