The next few months are likely to be critical as lawmakers, hog companies and activists launch a variety of initiatives:

Odor

N.C. State University's Swine Odor Task Force is expected to release its findings to the General Assembly later this month. The report will include recommendations on ways to minimize odor, and how they state might get involved. Legislators will decide which recommendations, if any, to incorporate into law.

Duke University's Susan Schiffman, a nationally recognized odor expert, is expected to publish a long-awaited study on the link between hog farm odors and mental health.

Meanwhile, several companies are testing new anti-odor technologies, including methane recovery systems that convert gases from hog lagoons into energy for running farm equipment.

Lawsuits

Trials are expected this spring in at least three test cases in which neighbors are suing large hog farms. Plaintiffs in Johnston, Cumberland and Wayne counties claim that odor from the farms creates a nuisance and prevents them from enjoying their property.

The state's right-to-farm law gives farmers limited protection from nuisance suits. But in a critical decision late last year, a state appeals court ruled that farmers can lose those protections if they change the nature of their operation -- for example, if they switch from row crops to pork production. However, neighbors must file suit within a year after the change is made.

The N.C. Pork Producers Association, which tracks lawsuits against hog farmers, has increased its legal defense fund 100 fold, to $50,000, in next year's budget to assist farmers with their legal bills.

River watch

Environmental groups, led by Hillsborough attorney Deborah Van Dyken, are planning to begin a systematic search for hog farms and other enterprises that may be polluting rivers and streams, especially in the Neuse River basin.

Rick Dove, a former Marine Corps colonel, said he is organizing private pilots into a "Neuse River Air Force" that will look for signs of pollution from the air. Dove said that violators will be cited under the citizen-suit provisions of the federal Clean Water Act.

Water quality

A joint federal-state research project is getting under way to determine whether hog wastes from leaking lagoons may be threatening drinking water supplies. The $150,000 study is not expected to be completed until 1997.

Meanwhile, the Hunt administration has proposed a $2 million increase in next year's budget to strengthen enforcement of water-quality laws for swine and poultry farms. Steve Levitas, deputy secretary for the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, says the agency plans to begin actively searching for violators, rather than relying on citizen complaints.

Contract farming

Farmers' groups say they hope to introduce legislation this month calling for increased legal protection for farmers who raise livestock under contract for corporations. A similar bill introduced in 1993 died in the House Agriculture Committee.

Any legislation is likely to meet stiff opposition. Gov. Jim Hunt, Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham and numerous industry officials say they oppose government interference in how livestock companies do business with contract growers.

Zoning debate

State Rep. Howard Hunter, a Murfreesboro Democrat, says he plans to introduce a bill this year that would give counties authority to regulate large hog farms through zoning. Under current law, counties are prohibited from using zoning laws to restricting any "bona fide farm."

Several counties have attempted to get around the zoning exemption by regulating large farms through health department ordinances. Swine industry officials have hinted that they may challenge these efforts in court.

Expansion

The Midwestern packing giant IBP Inc. is considering building a new hog slaughterhouse in the Southeast, and is said to be actively looking at sites in Duplin County and in Tidewater Virginia, just across the North Carolina line. A new plant would increase North Carolina's hog slaughtering capacity by nearly half.

Regardless of whether the plant is built, major hog companies have already embarked on a major expansion that are expected to increase the hog production in North Carolina to nearly 16 million by the end of 1996 and as high as 20 million by 2000.

Local fights are brewing in Chatham County, where a 4,500-hog operation is being planned, as well as Edgecombe County.

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