Blog Action Day: chickenshit on the half-shell in Maryland

[Today is Blog Action Day, where bloggers of all political stripes and subject interest are encouraged to put up a post on an environmental topic. Here is the first of two.]

Maryland and its Chesapeake Bay have a water pollution problem. The size of the problem is not chickenshit, either. Or rather, it is chickenshit. 1 billion pounds of it. A billion. That's not chickenshit. Or rather, it is chickenshit. There's really a lot of chickenshit around in Maryland. Maryland regulators have been too chickenshit to regulate the source: the poultry business. Why? Guess:

Maryland requires [waste disposal] permits for dairy and hog farms - but not poultry. The raising of chickens was exempted when Maryland's regulations were written more than a decade ago. The poultry industry has since defeated two attempts to require more oversight and liability for pollution.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration says it plans to draft regulations that would for the first time require permits for large chicken farms and inspections by the Maryland Department of the Environment. But the administration has offered few specifics. And the industry has made clear that it will oppose industrial-style pollution regulations, arguing that farms don't pollute as factories do.

"The poultry industry has been flying under the radar screen. And Maryland is completely abdicating its responsibility to enforce the federal Clean Water Act," said Michele Merkel, a former Environmental Protection Agency attorney now with the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental group.

At issue is how much to regulate an industry that produces about 1 billion pounds of waste a year but is also an economic and political force on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Perdue Farms, the largest chicken company in the East, is based in Salisbury. Also, the industry employs about 16,000 people on the Delmarva Peninsula, annually selling 567 million chickens worth about $1.6 billion, records show.

The farms are supposed to have a plan to limit run-off but they aren't checked by regulators. The agency doing the checking, the Department of Agriculture, promotes agriculture. It doesn't regulate it. And it only checks about 10% of the large 6000 plus large farms each year. They have issued fines for failure to have a plan: twice. The maximum. $350 each. It's a wonder there were any fines. The visits are announced in advance and there is no or inspection of the fields. It's just a check for paperwork. Meanwhile nitrogen and phosphorous levels continue to rise in rivers, streams and the Bay.

Of course poultry farmers don't want to be regulated the same as other farmers. Why should they? They're doing fine as it is, they say. Maryland has the best nutrient regulation plan in the nation, they claim. And it's voluntary. Why should they be subjected to "heavy handed" and onerous government regulations? Like what? Like permits, no discharge to streams, outdoor storage of manure and limiting offensive odors in the neighborhood, allowing the state to sample groundwater, having to report spills. And worst of all, expose their records to public scrutiny.

Their complaints, at least aren't chickenshit. They are bullshit.

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Revere,

That's plucked.

-Carl

And its not just the CS/BS in Chesapeake either Revere. The place is lousy with septic tank systems that are, have been and will continue to pollute those waters.

Its so bad that they oysters wont even live there any more.

The measure certain areas in parts per thousands rather than millions.

Bullshit? Nyah, its someones death sentence waiting to be carried out. Once they kill a bunch of people something will get done, not before.

The have so many point of source polluters and not only chicken ranches, but townships as well. All of which have political clout. Atlanta is another example. They pollute so much that its more economically feasible to pay the fines rather than to clean it up. So they up the fines at EPA and what does Atlanta do? Raise taxes to cover the DAILY fines. How nice.

I have said it before. I cannot for the life of me fathom how the planet is going to take another 1.5 billion in the next 30 years. I think it will respond with something really bad and take care of its own housecleaning.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 15 Oct 2007 #permalink

Randy,

i agree. i think this whole global warming business is about that exactly. what's the best way to clean your grill after you're done cooking? turn it on high and burn everything to ashes. then you're ready to start over with a clean grill next time. like george carlin said, 'the earth is going to be all right. the people are going to be f***ed.'

Great post revere. I usually avoid reading anything about the Bay cuz it pisses me off so bad. Solutions are sitting right under their fucking faces, and they sit there and shrug.

While, I think that the chicken farms should face the same scrutiny, there is a non-monetary reason why chicken farms were exempted in previous regulations. Dairy and swine manure tends to be stored in liquid form in lagoons. These lagoons can burst during floods and inundate nearby streams with concentrated manure. In contrast, chicken manure is a solid and not likely to cause a catastrophe like swine and dairy manure. Regulation of chicken litter will not result in the same preventative capability that regulation of swine and dairy manure had. In the mid 1990's, regulators were reacting to floods in NC which caused swine lagoons to catastrophically fail.