Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

In a broader discussion of environmental problems caused by disposal of hog wastes, this article uses as an example the case of Othella Locklear and her mother, Agnora, in the Robeson County community of Shannon. She has, for fourteen years, coped with foul smells, as well as black mist and oily film, from Curtis Oxendine's 1,200-head hog farm next door. Her neighbor regularly sprays swine sewage over the cornfield beside her mother's property, and the spray often extends on to her own lawn, automobiles, and pump house. Othella and her mother have been told by the N.C. Department of Environmental Health and Natural Resources that their well (and those of two others in Shannon) is contaminated with nitrites, a byproduct of animal waste. Spraying had been considered an environmentally safe way of recycling animal waste. One researcher believes the contamination of these wells resulted from over-spraying. Another believes it resulted from leakage from Oxendine's hog lagoon, which is only 150 feet from the Locklear's front door.