The negative effects on air quality from industrialized animal facilities in North Carolina stick around for a long time, according to a new study that also showed the effects are felt most by communities of color.
Sally Pusede, associate professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia and lead author of the study, said her team used satellite measurements of ammonia pollution associated with industrialized swine operations in eastern North Carolina.
"Those ammonia air quality impacts are disproportionately experienced by residents in eastern North Carolina who are Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, and Indigenous," Pusede said.
Compared to white communities, the study found ammonia concentrations were 27% higher for Black communities, 35% higher for Hispanic communities and 49% higher for indigenous communities between 2016 and 2021. Pusede noted satellite data from 2008 to 2013 showed the trends have largely remained unchanged.
Weather conditions can also increase the effects of ammonia pollution, with warm conditions and calm winds amplifying disparities. Pusede pointed out contrary to claims industrial swine operations only affect nearby communities, ammonia in warm conditions can travel quite far.
"Ammonia is emitted into the atmosphere, it travels downwind and then eventually that ammonia will deposit," Pusede explained. "The next day when the sun comes up, the air temperature warms, that ammonia can be reevaporated or revolatized into the atmosphere, and then can be transported even further downwind."
Pusede added broadly speaking, there are no protections from the air quality effects of industrial agriculture, not just ammonia but other pollutants as well.
"In North Carolina, there's a history of people not being protected by the state regulatory agencies," Pusede observed. "There's also not been regulations at the federal level from the EPA, and so that's a problem."