This makes monitoring water pollution much more difficult, and underscores the importance of regulating the manure lagoons, spreading of waste, and runoff controls. When waste is mishandled it harms waterways, human health and aquatic life. The primary pollutants from these operations are nitrogen, phosphorus, pathogens, and heavy metals. In 1996, the Center for Disease Control linked the high nitrate levels in Indiana well water near animal feedlots to spontaneous abortions in humans. Factory Farms and Poverty.
Factory Farms disrupt the local rural economy.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Draft Strategy for Addressing Environmental and Public Health Impacts from Animal Feeding Operations, March 1998. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1994 National Water Quality Inventory. See Illinois Citizens for Responsible Practices Report. See John Wade Chism.