Maryland's big poultry companies are poised to fight a state proposal that would require them to take responsibility for disposing of their chickens' manure - a burden that now lies with the growers who raise the chickens for them.
No one knows exactly how much manure is produced by the hundreds of thousands of chickens raised on the Eastern Shore each year. Nutrients in chicken manure are linked to Chesapeake Bay pollution and are suspected of triggering outbreaks of Pfiesteria in Eastern Shore rivers.
In May, the Maryland Department of the Environment notified three leading poultry producers - Perdue Farms, Tyson Foods and Allen Family Foods - that new permits for their processing plants will include provisions requiring the companies to ensure that nutrients from manure are kept out of streams and groundwater.
The draft permits were sent to the companies "as a courtesy," according to MDE spokesman John Verrico, after negotiations on a voluntary agreement to reduce manure pollution broke down.
The companies have told MDE they plan to appeal.
"It was unprecedented. Nowhere else in the country has this been done, apparently," said Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., a trade association of chicken companies and growers. "It's one independent business being asked to police and control the actions of another independent business."
But MDE spokesman John Verrico said officials believe the big chicken companies "are contracting out these chickens to be raised for them in a healthy and safe way, and if the subcontractor does something wrong, then the company who contracted them should be responsible."
Verrico said the draft permits require the companies to keep track of their growers' manure disposal, file reports with MDE and make sure that manure nutrients do not end up in rivers, streams or groundwater. Violators could face fines of up to $25,000 a day.
The draft permits will not go into effect until after a series of public hearings, which have not been scheduled, and after any appeal by the companies is concluded.
The proposed permits would affect three plants in Maryland and would not affect growers who raise chickens that are processed at poultry plants in Delaware, Satterfield said.
