Livestock And Wastes
During the last twenty years, industrial livestock farms have been replacing the traditional family size farms that once raised most of the nation’s swine. The number of livestock animals produced in the United States has grown modestly in the past two decades, but the number of farms raising them has shrunk dramatically because large producers now dominate the market. The large increase in industrial farming has led to large quantities of manure. The over abundance of manure has become a problem that leads to problems with pollution, heated debates between the industries and people of the community, and ways to try and find solutions for the pollution.
Today, large livestock operations ...
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over several months. The liquid rises to the top and is collected and sprayed over nearby fields.
Many problems come with the lagoons. North Carolina is one of the top hog producing states in the country. On June 21, 1995, North Carolina suffered the largest agricultural waste spill in its history: a 7.5-acre, 12-foot-deep lagoon leaked 25 million gallons of hog waste into the headwaters of the New River near Richlands. The waste from the 10,000-head operation, owned by Oceanview Farms, contaminated the water for several miles downstream, increasing the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients. When nutrient levels increase dramatically in rivers and other bodies of water, algae grow furiously, consuming most of he dissolved oxygen and asphyxiating the other aquatic organisms living there. An estimated 5,000 fish died as a result of the Oceanview Farms spill. There have been six other waste lagoon spills in North Carolina and three in Iowa, which shows that this ...
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spills focus attention on the hazards of livestock waste, the greatest threats are chronic seepage from lagoons and runoff from the fields where the lagoon liquids are sprayed. Some waste lagoons are lined with compacted clay or plastic, but most are not. The main route of contamination is through the soil. It migrates into nearby streams and aquifers. The contamination can increase the level of nitrates in groundwater and can cause methemoglobinemia or “blue baby syndrome.” This rare but potentially fatal disease, causes intestinal bacteria to metabolize the nitrates to nitrites, which oxidize the iron in hemoglobin, making it incapable of binding oxygen. Babies that are ...
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Livestock And Wastes. (2005, January 8). Retrieved December 22, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Livestock-And-Wastes/20226
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"Livestock And Wastes." Essayworld.com. January 8, 2005. Accessed December 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Livestock-And-Wastes/20226.
"Livestock And Wastes." Essayworld.com. January 8, 2005. Accessed December 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Livestock-And-Wastes/20226.
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