Pure Farms, Pure Waters

Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation

Pure Farms, Pure Waters

Pure Farms, Pure Waters is the Waterkeepers Carolina campaign to combat pollution from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs. Industrial poultry operations are the primary type of CAFOs in the Catawba River Basin, the majority located in the Northern Basin, in Alexander and Caldwell Counties, especially.

The poultry industry in North Carolina has little regulation, which leads to unchecked amounts of nutrients and bacteria from these facilities polluting our state’s waterways. The Catawba Riverkeeper team conducts regular sampling of creeks downstream of poultry operations to monitor their potential impacts on water quality.