A petition asking the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the North Carolina swine industry reached the agency's Washington, D.C., office Wednesday.
The petition, which has more than 93,000 signatures so far, was written by Wallace, North Carolina, resident Elsie Herring.
The petition said the swine facilities can cause negative health effects for residents, and intimidation was used against residents who live near the facilities.
"The hog operation next door makes my life miserable," Herring said in the petition. "The pork industry down here in North Carolina places profits over my civil rights."
The EPA said in a statement that they are currently investigating whether the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) regulation of the swine industry has been discriminatory against minorities.
Herring's petition follows a 2014 complaint against the DEQ, then known as the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which was written by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help and Waterkeeper Alliance.
According to the 2014 complaint, there are more than 2,000 swine operations in the state of North Carolina, which have the combined capacity to raise over 9.5 million swine.
The 2014 complaint said swine facilities are disproportionately located in communities of color, especially African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. Under current regulations, permitted industrial swine facilities are allowed to store urine and feces from the hogs in open-air pits, which can sometimes cause pollution of water sources.
The current petition said the contents of these pits are sprayed across the fields using high volume power sprayers and often this manure is sprayed into residents' yards, affecting the wellbeing of local residents.
