A. Introduction Essays - Water, Agriculture, Food And Drink

A. Introduction During the last twenty years, industrial livestock farms have been replacing the traditional family size farms that once raised most of the nation's swine. The number of livestock animals produced in the United States has grown modestly in the past two decades, but the number of farms raising them has slunk dramatically because large producer now dominate the market. The large increase in industry farming has led to large quantities of manure. B. Problem Definition The over abundance of manure has become a problem that leads to problem with Pollution, heated debates between the industries and societies (people of the community), ways to try and find solutions for the pollution. Today, large live stock operations look more like animal factories than animal Farms. The farms usually consist of several metal barns, each containing several hundred to several thousand animals tightly confined. The floors in the barns are slatted so manure can be flushed away. The manure is pumped into open-air lagoons, which are large, shallow pits dug into the ground, where it is stored until it can be pumped out irrigate fields. The solid manure sinks to the bottom of the lagoons and is broken down by anaerobic bacteria over several months. The liquid rises to the top and is collected and sprayed over nearby fields. Many problems come with lagoons North Carolina is one of the top hog producing states in the country. On June 21, 1995, North Carolina suffered the largest agricultural waste spill in its history: a 7.5-acre, 12-foot-deep lagoon leaked 25 million gallons of hog waste into the headwaters of the New river near Richmond's. The waste from the 10,000-head operation, owned by Ocean view Farms, contaminated the water for several miles downstream, increasing the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients. When nutrient levels increase dramatically in rivers and other bodies of water, algae grow furiously, consuming most of he dissolved oxygen and asphyxiating the other acquantic organisms living there. An estimated 5,000 fish died as a result of the Ocean View Farms spill. There have been six other waste lagoon spills in North Carolina and three in Iowa, which shows that this was not an isolated occurrence. Downstream of the spill, the New River also high focal coliform bacteria counts. Fecal pathogens that can be transmitted from livestock to people include enteric bacteria such as salmonella and ahigella, and protozoa such as cryptosporidium and giardia. People could be exposed to these pathogens by fishing or swimming in contaminated waters or by eating shellfish, which are filter feeders and can concentrate pathogens. When investigating the Ocean View Farms hog waste spill into the New River, North Carolina, DEM (Department of Environment Management) official found that the lagoon had not been operated properly. AN irrigation pipe had been bored through the lagoon's earthen wall, which weakened it. The truck-sized hole through which the waste spilled was near the pipe. Also, the lagoon had been overfilled. In response to the series of livestock waste spills, North Carolina Governor James Hunt ordered the DEM to investigate the lagoons on the state's largest hog operations. The investigators found 109 operations that were discharging hog waste directly into streams and rivers, 124 lagoons that were so full that they were likely to overflow or burst, and 526 that were nearing the critical point of fullness. Although spills focus attention on the hazards of livestock waste, the greatest threats are chronic seepage from lagoons and runoff from the fields where the lagoon liquids are sprayed. Some waste lagoons are lined with compacted clay or plastic, but most are not. The main route of contamination is through the soil. It migrates into nearby streams and aquifers. The contamination can increase the level of nitrates in groundwater and can cause methemoglobinemia or "blue baby syndrome." This rare but potentially fatal disease causes intestinal bacteria to metabolize the nitrates to nitrites, which oxidize the iron in hemoglobin, making it incapable of binding oxygen. Babies that are less than six months old are particularly susceptible to this syndrome because their digestive tracts are less acidic than those of adults. In North Carolina, the water table is only 15-2 0 feet below the surface of the soil and 25 percent of the lagoons

My Days in Jekyll Essays - Orange County Screenwriters Association

My Days in Jekyll Essays - Orange County Screenwriters Association Professor Frazier English 1101-125 22 October 2015 My Days in Jekyll Every year, I go to Jekyll Island for an engineering trip. The group is called TSA (Technology Student Association). Students in TSA from different schools would compete in all kinds of engineering competitions. The time I went that was the most fun was last year with our new engineering teacher, Mrs. Carter. We would be staying for 3 days and since it was professional, we had to bring business clothes. That morning of the day we would leave, we would come to school and put our suitcases in our teachers room and go to our regular classes. Directly after school, we would come and get our stuff and sit in the lobby of our school until the charter bus came. We were on the bus with about 5 different schools. I knew some of them from previous years and others from different school programs. The ride to Jekyll was about 6 hours so we stopped a couple of times to get food. To get to Jekyll Island, we had to cross over a bridge. The bridge was so beautiful. The ocean was blue, birds were flying over it, and the beach was so pretty. When we finally got there, we had to go to a conference center and take a test to qualify to be an officer over the entire program. Some people took the test seriously, but others including me, didnt. After everyone on our bus was finished, we got dropped off at our ho tels. Some of the schools stayed in the same hotel and others stayed in a hotel further. In one room, it was me, my friend and 2 girls from another high school. After we took our showers, me and my friend walked around in our PJs and talked. We saw students from other schools and ended up talking with them too. We finally got back to our rooms around 1:30 am and went to sleep. The next morning everyone woke up and got dressed around 7 to get breakfast from downstairs. We had to leave the hotel and go to the conference room since majority of us had competitions that whole day. I didnt have a competition but my teacher let me observe some of them. There were a lot of competitions. In one room, robots were racing to stack boxes on top one another. I stayed in that room majority of the day we were there. We ate lunch after everyone finished their competitions and went back to the hotel. Everyone changed into some comfortable clothes because we planned on going out. My friend and I went to a ro om with people from another school. We all decided to stay in the hotel and talked about millions of things until we all passed out. When we woke up in the morning, my friend and I went back to our rooms so we could go back. We would be leaving around 2 that afternoon so when we packed, everyone put their belongings under the bus. Some people still had competitions that morning so I decided to walk around with some other students from another school. We went in stores to buy clothes, we made fun of peoples hairstyles and we stopped inside Five Guys for some food and an ice cream parlor for some delicious ice cream. When it was time to go, we walked back to the conference center where our bus would be waiting on us. By the time we left, everyone had gotten to know each other and was talking up a storm on the bus. My teacher said she enjoyed herself and learned quite a lot. This trip was better than the other ones because I met a lot of new faces. I also got a chance to get a preview of competitions so next year I will know what competition I want to do and how Im going to do it. I really had a lot of fun and wish every year would go like this, even though a few people got in trouble.