Nationally, many major environmental groups working to combat farm pollution favor sticks over carrots. In Iowa, the Environmental Integrity Project is trying to force the state to regulate pollution from animal farms. In Pennsylvania, the group PennFuture has pressed the state to enforce farm pollution laws.
But in reacting to Maryland's proposed farm pollution rules, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's only comments were to ask whether the financial interests of farmers would be protected. For instance, the foundation's senior scientist, Jenn Aiosa, asked whether public money would be available to help farmers pay for required pollution control plans. And she took issue with a proposal to compel farmers to check soil and water samples for contamination.
The O'Malley administration is accepting comments on its latest proposal and is expected to release final rules in the fall.
For much of its 40-year existence, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation did not try to court farmers as it tried to educate the public and lobby for laws to clean up the estuary. The foundation's approach changed in the late 1990s, when an outbreak in the Pocomoke River of a toxic algae, Pfiesteria, was linked to runoff from poultry farms.
Environmentalists clamored for tougher anti-pollution laws, while farmers complained that they were being over-regulated to the point that they would be forced to close down. Eventually, the General Assembly required farmers to file plans detailing how much fertilizer they were using.
Baker said the foundation began to realize that if the farms went out of business, large developments probably would replace them - bringing impervious surfaces that would promote suburban runoff and be far worse for the bay.
"We decided at that point that we needed to earn the trust of farmers, to show them we didn't want to put them out of business," Baker said.
The foundation has a staff of 170 and a $22 million budget, much of it used for education and restoration work such as planting wetlands. Foundation officials said they do not get money from the farm industry.
While the group has sued local and federal governments over water-quality issues, its efforts with respect to farmers have mostly centered on securing more money for pollution-reducing practices. The foundation pushed to get money in the latest federal farm bill, which passed with an unprecedented $400 million for bay cleanup efforts.
