Chickens and the Chesapeake: EPA steps in

Maryland chicken farmers are rushing to comply with federal pollution rules, after the Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to regulate chicken manure in response to degradation of Chesapeake Bay, which has a huge watershed (right). Some farmers are complaining that their industry is being unfairly targeted, EPA says it is enforcing a regulation that's been on the books more than six years.

The decision to enforce the law requiring federal pollution-discharge permits for farms where manure washes into waterways or drainage ditches stems from "ensuring people obtain permits if then need them," says David McGuigan, the EPA's regional associate director of permits and enforcement. "A law that is not examined or enforced is a law that is not obeyed." But farmers are still nervous about they way the new enforcement will affect them.
"Agriculture is the largest source of the nutrients degrading the bay's water quality, according to the EPA's bay program, with runoff of manure and chemical fertilizers responsible for 42 percent of the nitrogen and 46 percent of the phosphorus. Such nutrients stimulate the growth of algae blooms and a vast oxygen-starved 'dead zone' in the bay unsuitable for fish, oysters and crabs," writes Timothy B. Wheeler for The Baltimore Sun. (Read more)