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According to a major poultry producer, about 1.7 million chickens were killed by floods in Florence, while North Carolina rivers flooded at least 60 farm buildings where animals were bred for market.
Sanderson Farms said Tuesday that losses have been recorded at independent farms that supply poultry processing plants. The company stated that its facilities had not suffered any major damage, but supply disruptions and flooded roads had caused some plant shutdowns.
In addition, some 30 farms near Lumberton have been isolated by floods, which hampers the distribution of food to animals. Lack of food could cause the death of additional birds if access is not restored quickly, the company said.
The BC Hog Council has stated that some hogs may have died when farms were flooded, but mortality figures are not yet available. The hog industry trade group said the farmers were working before and after the storm to move the animals at risk to heights. The industry lost about 2,800 hogs during the floods caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
The Department of Environmental Quality said that the earth dam in a pork lagoon in Duplin County had been broken, spilling its contents. A dozen pits containing animal excrement and urine had suffered structural damage, sewage had been dumped on their peaks during heavy rains or flooded with floodwaters. Large piles of manure are also stored in poultry farms.
Although the sun appeared on Tuesday in some areas of the state, flooding continues after the passage of Florence and is expected to worsen in some areas. Sixteen rivers in North Carolina were flooded Tuesday, and three more are expected to reach their peak by Thursday.
Human waste is also a threat to the environment as low-lying wastewater treatment plants are flooded. On Sunday, Cape Fear utilities reported that more than 5 million gallons of partially treated sewage dumped into the Cape Fear River after a power outage at its treatment plant.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that 16 community water treatment facilities in North Carolina are not able to provide drinking water and that seven sewage treatment plants belonging to the state is not operational due to floods.
Duke Energy continues cleaning operations on Tuesday after a week-end breach in a L.V. coal ash dump. Sutton Power Station near Wilmington.
Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said that a full assessment of the amount of ash escaped from the contaminated landfill is underway. The company initially estimated Saturday that about 2,000 cubic yards (1,530 cubic meters) of ash were moved, enough to fill about 180 dump trucks.
The Sutton Coal Plant was retired in 2013 and replaced with a new facility that burns natural gas. The company has excavated millions of tons of residual ash from old pits and removed the waste in a new coated landfill built on the property. Gray ash left by burning coal contains toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and mercury.
Photos from the website provided to AP by Cape Fear River Watch, an environmental advocacy group, show cascades of gray water that spill out from at least two breaches in the landfill and are heading to Sutton Lake, former cooling pool of the public recreation facility, including fishing and boating.
Sutton Lake flows into the Cape Fear River. Sheehan stated that Duke's assessment was that there was little chance that spill contaminants had reached the river.
At another power plant near Goldsboro, three old land-covered coal ash dumps were flooded by the Neuse. Duke said that they had no indication that these landfills at the H.F. Lee Power plant were leaking ashes into the river.
The handling of ash waste by Duke has been the subject of close scrutiny since a drain pipe collapsed under a waste pit in a former factory. Eden in 2014, causing a massive spill covering 70 miles (110 km) of Dan in gray mud. The utility later agreed to plead guilty to nine violations of the Clean Water Act and to pay $ 102 million in fines and restitution for illegally discharging ash pollution from five North Carolina power plants. He plans to close all his ash dumps by 2029.
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