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4.01.2008

Ag community takes exception at responsiblity for any more regulations

By STEPHANIE JORDAN
Associate Editor

SALISBURY, Md. — Poultry growers gathered last week at the final of three public hearings to express their disappointment with proposed regulations from the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Kenny Bounds, MidAtlantic Farm Credit government affairs officer, stood up and told Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) officials that growers want to do the right thing, but requiring them to permit their operations will not accomplish anything.
“I know we need to do more,” he said. “We need to do as much as we can.” But, he added, it falls on MDE and the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) to step up their enforcement and catch the growers who are not doing their best to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
Virgil Shockley, a Worcester County commissioner and poultry farmer himself, said that growers have a good relationship with MDA and Extension agents, and that for the most part, growers are good environmental stewards.
“There is a realization there’s not 100-percent compliance,” he said. “You’re going to have a few bad apples. I hope you find them. Clean up their act.”
Shockley said that before MDE puts new regulations on growers, funding sources should be identified to help growers put more Best Management Practices (BMPs) on the ground. He said growers especially need more funding for manure sheds.
“We have to have a place to put (manure), plain and simple,” Shockley said.
Dan Holland, of the Worcester County Farm Bureau, said growers want to see the Bay protected, but that they see these regulations as a punishment.
“Farmers can’t pass this on,” he said. “I can’t go to a grain buyer and say I need 10 cents more a bushel.” Holland added that it is much easier to control runoff from a farmer with a few chicken houses than a few hundred homes on a couple of acres.
The agricultural community voiced these remarks after a presentation from MDE and the Maryland Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). MDE presented the proposed regulations and what they would require, and NRCS talked to farmers about possible cost-share opportunities.
After the two public meetings in Ruthsburg, Md., and Boonsboro, Md., earlier this month, MDE changed its presentation to reflect some of the comments it was getting from the farm community.
Jay Sakai, MDE director of water management, told farmers that the agricultural community is not the only segment being affected. He said new regulations also are out for storm water and erosion and sediment control; there are new controls on air emissions; and septic systems are required to use the best available technology, among other more stringent guidelines.
“We’re not pointing fingers and saying you’re the problem,” he said. “We’re all the problem. This is about everyone doing what they’re supposed to do to help the Bay. We’re not just focusing on polluting farmers. We’re not just focusing on farming in general.”
Sakai said the reason MDE is establishing the permit because there is a large volume of poultry litter produced on the Eastern Shore, which leads to the potential for pollution. If it is contained and maintained properly, the pollution is low, but the potential for pollution is the purpose of the permit.
“A lot of us know what happened during the Pfisteria scare,” he said. “People were pointing fingers. We’re trying to avoid that.”
If a poultry grower has more than 75,000 square feet in production area, they will have to apply for a Maryland Animal Feeding Operation (MAFO) permit. If a farm already is considered a Concentrate Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), or if a farm discharges to “waters of the state,” they also must apply for a MAFO permit.
The permit entails more record keeping obligations — such as tracking fields where animal waste is distributed and when manure was applied — as well as having annual reports.
As the regulations are written in the draft proposal, growers also would be required to complete and install a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP), which could cost growers at least $2,000.
One comment that has surfaced repeatedly is that a CNMP is just a combination of the already state-mandated Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) and a Soil Conservation and Water Quality Plan. The latter is a plan that NRCS requires farmers to complete if they are applying for cost-share monies, and can be developed at little or no cost to the farmer.
MDE has compiled all comments from growers at the three informal public meetings and also written submissions that went into the department.
MDE will now come out with a revised set of regulations and will once again ask the public for comments in a series of formal public hearings.
“MDE wants to ensure the poultry industry that the regulations will benefit the agricultural community and the Chesapeake Bay,” said Robert Ballinger, director of MDE’s office of communications. “We thought we got a lot of good comments from these meetings. We want to try to be proactive to the concerns of the poultry industry.”
He added that MDE wants to have “a true partnership with the ag community.”