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.