Water Pollution

Factory farms are notorious water polluters. The main reason for this is is simply that these facilities generate far more animal waste than they’re capable of safely managing. While small, traditional farms are able to use animal manure to fertilize cropland, factory farms confine so many animals in one place that they quickly produce much more manure than can be utilized by plants on nearby fields.

Unfortunately, instead of installing effective waste treatment technologies to safely process the excess manure, factory farms typically store animal waste in huge, open pits called manure lagoons, wait for some of it to decompose and evaporate, then spray the remaining sludge onto surrounding cropland. Since waste is abundant and cropland is limited, the waste is often over applied, causing pollutants to eventually seep into groundwater, and/or wash into surface waters.

Pollutants are also released into ground and surface waters as a result of the incredible inadequacy of most manure lagoons; these structures often leak, are prone to overflowing during periods of heavy precipitation, and are susceptible to mechanical failure (e.g. walls collapsing, pipes bursting, pumps failing, etc.). In these cases, thousands of gallons of sewage sludge can quickly enter nearby waters. Learn more about water pollution in the Groundwater and Surface Water pages.