Farm Runoff

Maryland's farmers are working to control dangerous runoffAs a member of the Nutrient Management Advisory Committee (NMAC) and a beef farmer in Harford County, I was very dismayed by The Sun's editorial "Fair solutions to farm runoff" (July 19).To say, as the editorial did, that "Maryland farmers are not working adequately to control leakage of manure, nitrogen, and phosphorus into bay tributaries" does Maryland's farmers a great disservice. The state's farmers have cooperated with state agencies and done more than their fair share to clean up the bay.Before the the 1998 Water Quality Improvement Act was passed, Maryland had one of the nation's most successful, voluntary nutrient management programs.

It's imperative that the state do more to control pollution runoff from Maryland farms into the Chesapeake Bay. But the state's proposed nutrient-management rules, which go into effect next year, need amending to ease the burden on small farms and to assure their equitable application.An advisory committee made up of farm and environmental interests is proposing several worthy changes to the rules.They include a change in calculating the size of a livestock farm, exemption of research or demonstration projects, and a state cost-sharing manure-disposal program for all livestock producers.

Hoping to curb water pollution from chicken manure and other animal waste, the Environmental Protection Agency will for the first time attempt to hold processing companies as accountable for runoff as the farmers who grow the chickens, hogs and cattle.But with enforcement of the new rules to be left up to the states, farmers could still end up bearing most of the burden of additional costs, red tape and penalties."Whichever way they go, the companies will have control through the contracts [with farmers]

New regulations designed to reduce farm runoff into the Chesapeake Bay will hit livestock and poultry growers the hardest and could cost them money by forcing them to buy special fertilizer, say farmers and state officials.All Maryland farmers would have to keep better records of soil testing and fertilizer application, and state inspectors would visit a randomly selected number of them each year, officials say."I may have to truck this manure, at my expense, to Lord knows where," said Centreville poultry and grain farmer Daniel Shortall, who relies on his birds' waste to fertilize his cropland.

Federal officials and environmentalists questioned a voluntary plan yesterday by the poultry industry to protect the nation's waters from pollution by chicken and turkey manure.Industry officials announced Wednesday a "comprehensive" agreement for curbing polluted runoff from farms raising poultry. A key element of the plan, produced after 10 months of talks with farm groups and state and federal officials, calls on poultry growers to control their use of manure as fertilizer over the next decade.

WYE MILLS -- A coalition of environmental groups and dissident farmers is seeking a three-year moratorium on new or expanded livestock operations in Maryland.Calling the Delmarva Peninsula's $1.5 billion poultry business the largest unregulated industry in the Chesapeake Bay region, the activists say their proposal would buy time while state and federal regulators finalize rules for an industry that has been slow to limit its water pollution. The Eastern Shore of Maryland is the largest part of the peninsula.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening will launch a counter-offensive against Pfiesteria in Maryland waters today with the signing of landmark legislation aimed at reducing pollution coming from the land.The signing caps a nearly yearlong effort to adopt a strategy for battling the microbe, whose toxic outbreaks proved fatal to fish and harmful to humans on the Eastern Shore last summer.In order to win passage of the bill, Glendening had to agree to some critical compromises that were hard for environmentalists to accept.

THE $6 MILLION in fines and remedies that Tyson Foods Inc. will pay for polluting Chincoteague Bay is the stiffest penalty levied for water pollution in Maryland.The settlement that calls for reducing manure and bacterial runoff pollution should send a clear signal to the rest of Maryland's $1 billion poultry industry that remedial action is needed, not only by chicken processing plants but by farmer-growers who raise the birds."This action shows that it's more expensive not to comply with the law than to comply with it," a Justice Department lawyer said of the Tyson fine.

THE MOST contentious issue of the waning General Assembly session -- how to curb farm runoff that fouls waterways -- remains unresolved.House and Senate bills each contain good points. The six lawmakers assigned to a conference committee must find a compromise that addresses this environmental problem yet is fair to farmers.If opposing sides adopt intractable positions, both bills will die.At least another year will pass without anything being done to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that leaches out of manure and other fertilizers into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

IT IS crunch time for the Maryland General Assembly. Eight days remain before the midnight adjournment date a week from tomorrow. Major legislation of sweeping importance remains in limbo.Having spent much of the early weeks ensnarled in ethics and conflict of interest allegations that led to the exit of two senior legislators, lawmakers now have little time to reach consensus on contested bills. Complicating matters is a battle of wills between Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. over which chamber dominates.