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Harmful pig poop lagoons in North Carolina mapped from space - Space.com

Harmful pig poop lagoons in North Carolina mapped from space - Space.com

Harmful pig poop lagoons in North Carolina mapped from space - Space.com
Jun 24, 2022 1 min, 27 secs

Researchers tapped into Landsat 5's database to locate swine farm waste ponds.

All of this pork production results in millions of tons of pig manure that needs to be collected, stored and treated in massive outdoor waste lagoons (opens in new tab).

These vast brownish-pink ponds have multiplied in the past four decades as demand grows and North Carolina swine farmers have switched from raising pigs on large tracts of open land to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

For example, excess nutrients from the waste in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus accumulate in lagoons and upend the natural equilibrium of local soils, groundwater and surface water.

To target the long-term effects to the environment and get a better view of where these pig poop lagoons are located, scientists are turning to the skies for help, analyzing detailed satellite imagery.

For example, Lise Montefiore and her team at North Carolina State University  recently inspected decades of photos snapped by Landsat 5, a satellite operated by the U.S.

The researchers studied Landsat 5 images to observe the expansion of CAFO pig poop ponds to determine exactly where they're clustered and how long they've been in operation, publishing the results in February 2022 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports (opens in new tab).

Spotting the telltale pink or brown geometric shapes of the waste lagoons is a lot like a dirty game of "Where's Waldo," and so far Montefiore and her colleagues have used Google Earth Pro's database to identify 3,405 waste lagoons spread along North Carolina's coastal plain. .

— NASA's Landsat 5 satellite sets Guinness world record.

"The most interesting results speak to how dramatically the swine CAFO density and footprint increased in North Carolina over a relatively short time period," Montefiore said in the statement.

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