At least two hog waste lagoons in North Carolina have been breached, two others have been damaged, and several others have overflowed and flooded due to Hurricane Florence, raising activists' concerns about health and environmental hazards.

The two lagoon breaches occurred on farms in Duplin County and Sampson County, Megan Thorpe, a spokesperson for North Carolina Environmental Quality, told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday. Two others have structural damage, but the extent is unclear.

At least 13 other swine lagoons have overflowed, nine are flooded, and around 55 are on the brink of overflowing, as of Tuesday afternoon, according to NCEQ.

The breaches were reported two days after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said that there were no reports of any issues with the state's approximately 4,000 hog waste lagoons.



"We are closely monitoring hog lagoons, and we haven’t had any reports of issues," Cooper said Sunday.

The lagoons are essentially waste pits filled with hog urine and feces, along with water.



Environmental groups have expressed concerns about "massive amounts" of pathogen-filled hog waste entering the environment from the breached lagoons.

Some of these waste pits are bigger than football fields, Daniel Estrin, an advocacy director with Waterkeeper Alliance — a nonprofit environmental group — told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday.

A breach or structural failure of the lagoon occurs when the lagoon's walls give way and are unable to hold back the hog waste.

"These lagoons are cesspools filled with hog waste that include really dangerous pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli," Estrin said.

When the lagoons breach or overflow, the hog waste mixes with stormwater, exposing people who live near the facilities or who come in contact with the floodwater to potentially serious health hazards, Estrin said.

The flowing hog waste from breached lagoons — which appears pinkish in color — could also pollute the state's rivers, streams, and waterways, elevating nitrogen and phosphorous levels, and causing toxic algae blooms and fish kills, Estrin said.