EPA and Chesapeake Bay Foundation reach agreement on controlling farm animal runoff in watershed

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have ended their long-running battle over runoff from farms, agreeing how to monitor pollution in the bay, which has a watershed of 64,000 square miles in six states -- New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. (New York Times photo by Todd Heisler: Farm runoff in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania)

As part of the agreement, EPA will audit and inspect each state's animal feeding operations and programs to make sure they comply with the Clean Water Act and state regulations, taking action if they are not compliant, reports E.B. Furgurson of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md. EPA will also collect data to determine if revisions are necessary.

The agreement mostly affects small farmers, with about 66 percent of nutrients -- mostly manure -- that enter the bay coming from such farms, reports Ad Crable for Lancaster Online. In Lancaster County, in south-central Pennsylvania, 63 livestock and poultry farms will be affected by the agreement.

Some people are concerned that the EPA is only concentrating on the bay area, reports Furgurson. Valerie Connelly, of the Maryland Farm Bureau, told Furgurson, “Rather than impose new standards across the country, the EPA appears to be imposing a tougher set of inspection and review requirements only on animal operations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”

Some environmental groups have expressed the same concerns, reports Furgurson. Seth Horstmeyer, of The Pew Charitable Trusts, said the organization “is extremely disappointed that, instead of strengthening national rules to protect all of our waterways from livestock waste, the EPA is conducting more assessments." (Read more)