3/13/01

By MARK POWELL

Maryland’s Eastern Shore Congressman Wayne Gilchrest wants to take up the role of peacemaker in the debate over co-permits.
Gilchrest (R) has been busy over the last two weeks putting in telephone calls to the Glendening Administration, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and meeting with leaders of the poultry industry to re-establish a dialogue before the issue ends up in court.
“We’d like to offer an opportunity for the groups to sit down again,” Gilchrest said.
The groups include the state of Maryland, poultry organizations and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The congressman had talked already to Ken Sterling, president of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., and Kenny Bounds, immediate past president of DPI. And he’s spoken with Gov. Glendening’s Secretary of the Environment Jane Nishida. And he’s spoken with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Theresa Pierno. Next on the list last week — between congressional votes on President Bush’s tax cut proposals — were phone calls to the poultry companies. At presstime last week, none of the parties Gilchrest had contacted were opposed to meeting again. However, the Bay Foundation’s Pierno said her organization did not want to discuss the co-permits, specifically.
In an e-mail to The Delmarva Farmer, she wrote, “CBF is willing to meet with all interested parties on the broader issue of poultry litter management. We look forward to a discussion of innovative solutions to deal with this difficult problem. The issuance of the permits should not be the subject, but rather how we can best deal with addressing both water quality problems and farmers concerns.”
Talks between the groups had broken off last year as the state pursued its regulatory course.
Gilchrest has established himself among the leaders in the Republican Party who are moderate on environmental issues. He said that Maryland’s water quality act is getting at nutrient management issues. The co-permitting issue, though, with its “regulatory regime” has the potential to stifle farmer creativity in dealing with environmental issues, he said.
Co-permitting has taken center stage for much of Maryland’s ag community over the past few months, as the state has held a series of well-attended public hearings on MDE’s proposal to make poultry companies liable for the nutrient management practices of their contract farmers.
Maryland Farm Bureau, DPI and poultry companies have vehemently opposed the co-permits, while environmentalist organizations are supporting them. The state has said the co-permits are necessary to make poultry companies responsible for the management of manure produced on their contract operations.
Farm organizations have opposed the measure for many reasons, including the linkage of liability between farmers and poultry companies and the fact that state’s mandatory nutrient management law will deal with ag’s nutrient pollution issues.
According to James Dieter, MDE’s program manager for wastewater permits, the state will indicate its direction on new language for the proposed regulations in April.
“We do expect some language changes to clarify the permit,” Dieter said. If the language changes are “significant,” there could be another round of public hearings, he said.
MDE received some 500 letters of opposition on behalf of each of the poultry companies involved (Perdue Farms, Tyson Foods and Allen’s).
Approximately 300 signed their names to letters supporting the action. Dieter said support predominantly came from people identifying themselves with the Bay Foundation.
There continues to be talk of a possible poultry company lawsuit against the state if the state goes forward with its proposal despite vigorous dissent at MDE’s public hearings. And many in the farm community say if the regulations go through as proposed, it could significantly damage the future of smaller farming operations on the Eastern Shore. Many fear the liability issue may force poultry companies to look elsewhere to locate poultry farms.
Environmentalists, for their part, see it otherwise. An Annapolis weekly newspaper, the New Bay Times, editorialized last month on the issue in a piece entitled “Memo to Maryland: Hang Tough on Chicken Waste Rules.”
They wrote: “To hear the poultry industry tell it, any regulation that aims to improve the environment will close chicken farms immediately and drive companies to friendlier states. We doubt seriously that this would happen and we think the big companies should be ashamed of themselves for manipulating growers in so cynical a fashion.”
Into this debate steps Gilchrest with hopes of restarting talks. One option that could exist — if Maryland officials decide to forego their currently regulatory route — would be to create a memorandum of understanding between the state and the poultry companies. Such an agreement currently exists in Delaware, with the companies voluntarily doing much of that which would be required in Maryland, but not held liable for their growers.
Observers say that the advantage of an MOU, originally proposed in Maryland, is that it creates an atmosphere of cooperation between the state and poultry companies.
For Gilchrest, the rancor between farmers, the state and environmentalists over co-permitting is getting in the way of moving forward with positive initiatives for Delmarva agriculture.
A politician of different stripe by many accounts, Gilchrest has long maintained a committee of farmer advisors and is active on some ag issues. He is particularly interested these days in a Kent County effort promoted by Extension agent John Hall — Chesapeake Fields.
Chesapeake Fields has as its goal improving farmer profitability as the key to preserving the rural nature of the region.
Gilchrest says it’s essential to preserve the farmer and the ag economy. He’s talked with Delaware’s new governor, Ruth Ann Minner and Maryland Secretary of Natural Resources Sarah Taylor-Rodgers about a concept of preserving ag land, the ag economy and the wild areas on the Delmarva Peninsula. Economists and farmland preservation specialists are pointing to dismal economics and major losses of farmland as signs that farming needs support on both a state and federal levels.
In addition to working on the promotion of an “ag security corridor” on Delmarva, Gilchrest also is working these days with other lawmakers from the region to ensure that non-row crop farmers in this part of the country get programs that help them as the traditional commodity programs help out corn and soybean producers.