030624 Pork Producers Did Well in Record Rainfall

Raleigh, NC - One day after the U.S. Weather Service pronounced this spring the wettest on record in North Carolina, the North Carolina Pork Council (NCPC) stated that environmental systems at hog farms statewide have performed remarkably well.

"Not a single lagoon at a single hog farm has overflowed and not a single lagoon has breached," said Rann Carpenter, Chief Executive Officer.

"The rainfall this spring has tested all kinds of systems to the limit," Carpenter said, "so it is not surprising that there has been flooding, catastrophic structural failure of numerous dams on freshwater lakes and challenges to waste-water systems statewide. But in that context, the fact that no hog operation experienced a breach or overflow is commendable."

Carpenter said, however, that "perfection remains a goal, not an achievement. We learned much from the hurricane(s) in the 1990s, and we have learned much again in 2003. We are intent on constant improvement, constant reduction in the number of violations, however minor, and on setting standards others can emulate."

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