Permit conditions and recent inspections
Wallace Green received a North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality permit in December 2025 to operate the waste-management system at White Oak Farms, a former hog farm in Wayne County. Within weeks, state inspectors found several problems, including wastewater on the lagoon cover and wastewater runoff reaching a swamp, according to Inside Climate News.
The inspections cited wastewater sprayed into ditches, fields and woods, ponded water containing waste-related bacteria, and the absence of a certified operator. Inspectors also documented holes in the digester cover, Inside Climate News reported. Green told that outlet the company was investigating the source of runoff and working on repairs to the cover.
The News & Observer reported that Green had no full-time employees overseeing the farm and had not submitted several documents DEQ requested. It reported that DEQ issued Biox penalties of $10,696 in May and $7,346 in August 2026, with a third penalty listed as potential. Green had not paid the May and August penalties or more than $23,000 in earlier DEQ fines, according to the News & Observer.
Water-quality problems predate the current permit
The farm’s record includes a major digester failure in May 2022. The estimates of the discharge differ: state records cited by Inside Climate News put the release at at least 1 million gallons of foam and slurry, with more than 10,000 gallons entering Nahunta Swamp. North Carolina Health News reported that DEQ counted 10,745 gallons reaching the swamp, while a News & Observer estimate cited by that outlet put the amount reaching wetlands at at least 37,000 gallons. Sound Rivers has separately said more than 40,000 gallons of foam waste entered the swamp.
DEQ later issued a $34,520 penalty for violations connected to the 2022 discharge, according to North Carolina Health News. The outlet also reported that agency sampling in March and April 2023 found high levels of fecal coliform and nutrients in an unnamed tributary to Nahunta Swamp, and that DEQ notified the farm’s owners that runoff was still affecting the wetland.
Sound Rivers conducted sampling after the 2022 spill.
Ownership and state screening
Green bought the former White Oak Farms property at auction in 2024. The News & Observer reported that Green is a Raleigh real estate agent who had not previously operated a hog farm or digester, and that Biox Renewables was a one-person LLC he created in September 2024. According to the outlet, before issuing the permit, DEQ confirmed that Green had a state-registered LLC but did not review his finances, experience or staffing.
The News & Observer reported that North Carolina officials do not conduct background checks on hog-farm owners before issuing permits and that DEQ spokesperson Josh Kastrinsky said financial disclosure is not required in a permit application. Green told the outlet he understands the industry and plans to bring in investors and specialists. He also said he first encountered digester technology about 25 years ago, while operating a metal-fabricating company.
Samantha Krop of Sound Rivers and Blakely Hildebrand of the Southern Environmental Law Center told the News & Observer they were concerned about managing the operation without relevant expertise and whether applicants should have to show they can meet permit requirements.
The permit rules in a wider industry
The News & Observer reported that North Carolina has more than 2,000 hog farms and 19 operating methane digesters, with 40 more permitted and 29 applications under review; it said most digester permit holders are linked to Smithfield Foods. State permit requirements include keeping lagoon and fertilizer-use records, obtaining engineering approval for systems and reporting lagoon capacity.
What the broader state record shows
A DEQ annual report says the department’s two divisions conducted 2,547 animal-waste compliance inspections and operation reviews statewide during fiscal year 2020-2021. That historical statewide count does not establish a trend or explain the violations at White Oak.
DEQ also reported that Murphy-Brown Farm 7692 in Bladen County estimated nearly 30,000 gallons of animal waste reached a nearby creek after a recirculation pipe failed in January 2023, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. That separate incident does not establish a statewide trend or explain the cause of White Oak’s 2022 discharge; the records cited here do not provide details for comparing the White Oak event with hog-waste lagoon failures during Hurricane Florence in 2018.
Green has not specified a timetable for resolving the farm’s current compliance problems, according to the News & Observer. White Oak Farms is near Nahunta Swamp, and the site’s inspection findings and past discharges have drawn attention to effects on nearby waters.
