2/15 By MARK POWELL

Members of Maryland’s Agricultural Commission meeting last week in Annapolis voted to request that Secretary of Agriculture Dr. Henry “Bud” Virts explore the impact on farmers of the Glendening Administration’s proposal to mandate updated septic systems.
The governor is proposing that counties designate areas where homeowners with septic systems put in place nitrogen removal systems to reduce impact of such systems on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The technology would cost an average of $4,500 per septic system, plus about $200 a year in maintenance fees. The governor has added a tax credit to his proposal to help homeowners bear the cost.
Some 400,000 Maryland homes have septic systems, including the vast majority of farmers. Counties would designate the areas for these special septic systems based upon where the areas are in location to the Chesapeake, sources of drinking water, or if the soil is poorly draining.
The septic tank issue is raising the ire of many in the state’s rural areas — particularly on the Eastern Shore.
The Maryland Farm Bureau last week took a position in opposition to the septic proposal. MFB lobbyist Valerie Connelly said, “It’s very expensive.” And, she pointed out, the septic tank bill would go into effect at about the same time as the state’s farmers begin bearing the load of the new nutrient management law. That would put farmers under a significant financial load.
While the administration’s septic system proposal, entitled the Water Resources Protection Act, was drawing much attention, another bill, not yet introduced, could prove a significant aid to farmers who use crop insurance. Delegate Norm Conway (D-Lower Shore), at presstime, was prepared to introduce legislation to authorixe putting about $2 million into subsidizing crop insurance at a rate of up to $2 an acre. Crop insurance costs up to $11 per acre. The governor will be asked to put funding for the effort into his supplemental spending bill.
Another bill introduced last week, from Delegate Dave Rudolph (D-Cecil), would establish a task force to study the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation. MFB’s Connelly said the ag organization supports the creation of the task force. “There are a lot of issues which need to be looked into,” she said. For example, the state farmland preservation program is chronically underfunded and there are continuing questions about allowed exemptions to MALPF easements.
Delegate Barry Glassman has proposed a measure which would increase funding to county certified ag land preservation programs by matching from the state surplus any additional funds contributed from the country general fund in Fiscal Year 2001. Several county governments testified in favor of this measure at a hearing last week.
Delegate Dan Morheim (D-Baltimore) has introduced three ag bills. One would prohibit the sale of seeds with the biotech “terminator” gene, another would place a moratorium on hog farms expanding to more than 250 swine, and the third would set up a fund to provide for loans to farmers interested in adding sustainable ag techniques to their operations. To qualify as “small,” a producer would have to gross less than $250,000 a year.
Morheim said he has several small farmers in the district he represents in Annapolis. “Big farmers, large corporate farms get help in lots of ways,” he said. “Access to capital is a problem for the small farmers I’ve talked to.”
Such a fund, run through the Maryland Department of Agriculture, could help producers get into organic farming and other such pursuits, he said. On a positive note for ag interests, a State Senate hearing for the proposed agricultural license plate to promote agriculture went well. Cecil County farmer and Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation Vice President Ewing McDowell testified for the measure.
Ag groups throughout the state got behind the measure, which would provide funding to the ag education foundation from sales of the license plate. The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee passed the measure Feb. 11.
Another bill from Delegate Rudolph would allow for a checkoff on state income tax to support the Maryland ag land preservation program.