Co-Opting the Message

 Last week 1000 Friends of Maryland launched their newest campaign around land use, a campaign targeted at Maryland's agricultural lands.  Their goal is to keep farmers 'farming' and stop the continued sell-off of our rich agricultural lands to subdivision development.

A worthy goal and one vested in their mission statement.  Unfortunately their media materials contained some language that I would like to debate.

A section of their publication stated "The growing divide between the agricultural community and the environmental community threatens to further alienate farmers in the public eye.  The most volatile area of conflict has been around regulations on runoff from poultry farms, and there are indications that the divide may become more pronounced as the EPA and states struggle with failed bay cleanup goals.  1000 Friends of Maryland can help to bridge the divide among interest groups and communities in all parts of the region..."

Now besides the fact I met with these folks prior to the publication of these materials and I thought we had specifically addressed this language, the fact that they could not tell me how they planned to 'bridge' this gap leaves me disturbed.  The reference to environmental laws and regulations as the reason for this great divide brought to mind a column I wrote for the ACT newsletter about a year ago.

And so I have dusted off that old 2008 column and post it now on my blog, because it is still so very relevant!!  Read on......

I recently represented Assateague Coastal Trust at a one day retreat of Eastern Shore environmental groups, hosted by the MD League of Conservation Voters. Our goal for the day was to find a way to strengthen our influence in Annapolis by coming together as a unified voice for the Eastern Shore.


Not surprisingly, WATERKEEPER Alliance's effort to bring about more transparency in the CAFO permitting process quickly became a topic of discussion among a few of the groups and at first I was not bothered by direct and indirect comments on the perceived folly of our effort.

I became increasingly alarmed as the other environmental advocates spoke using expressions like "partnership with the farmers" and "protecting the family farms." What alarmed me about this discussion was not that these land conservation advocates needed to work cooperatively with our Maryland farmers, but rather that these environmentalists had been using the very phrasing developed by the poultry industry to fight regulation.

If you've ever heard the term “co-opted” used and didn't know exactly what it meant, this was a perfect example. One way or another, these environmental groups had been duped into speaking the language of the Poultry industry, language that seeks to dissemble and misrepresent the issues that we as environmental groups must pursue. By using this language, these people were unwittingly supporting the very group that fights so hard to prevent the regulation necessary to protect our drinking and recreational waters.

Do you ever get angry when you see someone throw trash on the beach at Assateague? Would you stop someone from dumping waste oil down a storm drain? Do you think it's OK for people to throw garbage from their car windows?

The fact is, the issue that seemed to alarm them the most was that WATERKEEPER wanted the poultry industry, like every other individual and industry in the country, to obey the laws which were written to protect the environment. This is what WATERKEEPER Alliance is asking the state to do by requesting transparency.

This is not new law or new regulation, it is simply saying, "You must tell us what you are doing." For too long now the poultry industry has been exempted from the same requirements that other industries must follow; providing specific information on how they handle runoff and waste.

Then there's the persistent myth of the "family farm." I've been to family farms, I know farmers who run their own operations on their own land, and I know the difference between that type of operation and a factory farm (which are family farms about as much as the Sopranos were a "family").

The poultry industry likes to portray these issues as hurting the family farmer when the real truth is that the poultry industry itself is more of an enemy to the family farm than any current form of state or federal regulation. The advantages they seek for these businesses, things like tax breaks, environmental waivers and zoning exceptions uniformly advantage only the largest corporate operations.

In fact these advantages the corporations seek usually result in an unfair competitive advantage for the large operations, an advantage that all too often results in the loss of family farms as profit falls and costs rise.

So don't tell me that by fighting to make others obey the same laws we all have to obey I'm hurting someone. And don't tell me that by protecting the water you play on, swim in, fish in, and drink I'm somehow doing the devil's work.

IMPORTANT WORCESTER COUNTY MEETING OCT 6

Please be advised!   The Planning Commission has turned over a 'final draft' document of the revised County Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Regulations and Zoning Map (based on public comment submitted this summer) to the County Commissioners.

The Commissioners will hold two work sessions to review these changes and prepare to adopt a new Zoning Ordinance, new Zoning District Map, and new Subdivision Regulations.  The first is Oct. 6 at 1:30 pm in the Government Office Bldg. in Snow Hill.  The second work session will be Oct. 20 at 1:30pm, same location.

 It is imperative concerned County citizens attend these work sessions to listen and be seen**.  No further public comment can be made and these work sessions, while open to the public, will not be open to public comment.

Through Assateague Coastal Trust, ACT attorneys and I helped to draft our written comments earlier this summer and they were submitted to the County by ACT's President Jim Rapp on behalf of the ACT Board of Directors.

Many of our comments regarding identification of impaired waterways, incorporation of better TMDL protective language, a more protective zoning district for the Holly Grove Swamp, (which in turn will protect the water quality of Herring, Turville, Trappe and Ayers Creeks,) were indeed drafted into these new documents.

In addition, per our comments, improvements to various definitions regarding environmental resources and environment features were written into the code.  However, despite our pressure the County chose not to address the abolishment of the Estate Zone, nor did it chose to deal with another progressive Comp. Plan program - Transfer of Development Rights - to keep commercial development in the commercial zones.

I have to admit I was greatly surprised by this.  After all, there was a huge hullabaloo in June after the public comments were received by Permitting Dept. Director Ed Tudor and assistant Phyllis Wimbrow (yes, it was Permitting Staff writing the new Code, not Planning....go figure.)  And then of course, just after the public comment period, the entire government structure was overthrown and Permitting became King, with Planning and Environmental Programs kicked out of the sandbox.

Wimbrow publically berated ACT, the Coastkeeper, Maryland Coastal Bays Program and even the Maryland Department of Planning (!) during the June Planning Commission meeting, accusing us of not knowing what we were talking about. 

Well, I'll admit I don't have an undergraduate or post graduate degree in Planning....but wait, neither do those two!

Oh, but I digress.  Let me get back on track.

So imagine how thrilled I was to find some of our suggested language drafted into the revised code and subdivision regs.

My issue at this point is new language in the revised draft of the Code that now specifically exempts Rural Cluster Subdivisions and Consolidated Development Rights Subdivisions from the previous requirement to contain all their wastewater treatment on-site.

Offsite septic waste disposal systems and off-site location for drain fields is not good!  There are a number of these in the county already.  If they aren't providing a great location for people to drive down the dirt access road into the woods to dump their garbage, these off-site systems are prone to lack of monitoring, inspection and maintenance.  Which means pollution to our streams, creeks and groundwater.

Another problem with this new language in the Consolidated Development Rights Subdivisions is that if off-site sewage disposal is allowed, the lot size is allowed to be smaller, which can potentially increase the number of lots to the maximum of 20 allowed.  If the septic sewage had to be treated on each lot, the lots are required to be larger, thus limiting the total number of houses built.

Look folks - if the land you want to put a housing development on cannot handle the waste generated by the occupants - then it should not be allowed to be developed into subdivisions!!  End of story.

That's why we are supposed to have 'growth centers' - because there are PUBLIC SERVICES within these growth centers.  That's why Worcester County's Comprehensive Plan specifically designated 'growth areas', and these were not in the middle of our rural woods and agricultural lands.

If you agree with me - call your County Commissioners.   And don't let them tell you it's too late to comment..."the public comment period is closed," they love to use this cop out.

This specific language that gives an exemption for off-site sewage disposal for Rural Cluster Subdivisions and Consolidated Development Rights Subdivisions was not in the draft of the Code we, the public, were given.  Therefore we were not able to comment on it.  Tell them that.

And go to the meeting on Tuesday, October 6 at 1:30pm in Snow Hill at the Govt. Building behind the Courthouse.   If our elected officials do not see their voting public out in the audience, who will they see?

(**and now the disclaimer - the Coastkeeper is out of the state on Oct. 6. But several representatives from Assateague Coastal Trust will be in attendence.   I'll be back in time for the second work session.)

Trees - Who Needs 'Em?

I'm talking about trees - you know, those obnoxious tall things that send out roots under your driveway, drop leaves and needles into your gutters, block your view.  Who needs 'em?  Let's get rid of them.

That seems to be the way Worcester County thinks about trees.  Oh sure, county Planning Commission members will talk a good story - "trees are necessary to take up nutrients out of the groundwater, trees keep our parking lots cool and reduce radient heating, trees are important environmental features and must be protected.  Especially large, established trees."

But sit at a few Planning Commission meetings and you soon learn they could care less.  At the September 17 Planning Commission meeting, a new restaurant that will be built on Rt. 116 in West Ocean City was on the agenda.  The PC had almost completed its review of the project, everyone had contributed their two cents worth and approval was eminent.   Then suddenly an almost offhand comment by one of the Planning Commission members brought the two large, mature maple trees into the discussion.  Now you have to realize, the property owner/business owner and his attorney had said nothing about these trees.  These folks were just sitting there ready for the Commission to approve the project.

And with a flip of her hand, one Commissioner said "oh, its ok if you want to cut them down."  That was it - the Planning Commission said go ahead and get rid of these two, mature - HEALTHY - trees if it will make it easier for the business owner to design the layout of the parking spaces!

I could not believe my ears.  I could not speak up or object.  They were just...gone.

So keep an eye out for it, folks.  Across Rt. 611 from the Green Turtle, there's a small white house sitting back off the road on a wooded lot.  When the construction begins, say goodby to those two large maples.

Oh, but don't worry - that particular Commissioner thought the whole design of the diner style restaurant was 'cute', so who needs the trees?

We can now drive down Rt. 611 just south of Sunset Ave. and where we had the opportunity to keep two more trees in this rapidly developing commercial zone, trees which will help to control stormwater, lower the ambient temperature in the area, and just do their simple job of providing oxygen - kiss 'em goodby.

Even more sad, when I spoke to this Commissioner on the street a week later, she didn't even realize she was the one who had done this!

Swim - Fish - Drink

Swim- Fish-Drink was the theme of the design on the t-shirt at a WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE conference a couple years ago.  It's one of my favorite.  Not just because it was a very trendy drab green color, but rather because these words ran across the chest, with an appropriate graphic of a swimmer, a fish and a glass of water above each word.  Very simple, yet these 3 images and 3 words told a huge story about a single character - water.

Swim - Fish -Drink.  That water theme sums up Worcester County in a nutshell.   Tourists and residents alike flock to Worcester County to swim, jetski, water ski, wade in the county's water.  Tourists and residents alike come here to boat, fish, clam, crab in the county's water.   And we all drink the water here - well water or city water, it all comes from our aquifers that are fed from the groundwater, and that groundwater is recharged from whatever water can make its way through the soil.

'Stormwater' - plain and simple:  any water that runs off a roof, a driveway, a patio, a lawn, a field.   Stormwater carries any and all pollutants it picks up along its journey from rooftop, etc. to the nearest receiving body of water (your creek, your river, your bays.)


And so I found myself on Wednesday, September 23, sitting in a meeting room for seven hours overlooking Back Creek in Annapolis, MD, a member of the Maryland Stormwater Consortium, with two dozen other environmental advocates, scientists, lawyers, engineers and land planning consultants to exchange ideas and formulate a communication strategy about the new Maryland Stormwater regulations that will go into effect early 2010.

The Maryland Stormwater Consortium formed almost two years ago, after the State Legislature passed the Maryland Stormwater Act of 2007 - probably one of the most progressive pieces of environmental legislation to ever come out of Annapolis because it mandated that county and municiple land use and development codes must incorporate ENVIRONMENTAL SITE DESIGN (ESD) into the earliest planning stages of development/redevelopment.

ESD says that after the construction phase is complete, all stormwater must be kept on the development site to the maximum extent practicable and what does run off must be very close to what ran off the natural site before it was developed.  Redevelopment regulations now require improvements to how stormwater is controlled so that the new building and parking lots actually do a better job of keeping the water runoff on site than the old building did.  (are your eyes glazing over yet?)

The Consortium positioned itself to advocate for the strongest regulations possible as the state's old regs began a transformation that would turn the building community upside down.  The paradigm shifts!

Old skool:   water is 'waste'- move it, pipe it, steer it by curb and gutter; whatever it takes to get it off the land as fast as possible.  Dump it out into the closest body of water to the job site.

New skool:  water is a 'resource'  (wow, what a concept!)  Capture it, infiltrate it, re-use it, keep it on the land, filter it and let it recharge the ground water.

So now 'old skool' county/city codes must change.  Familiar, easy, 'been doing it this way for years' methods are out the window.  Old dogs must learn new tricks.  Fortunately there are a number of new dogs in town too, so in some cases the transition will not be so difficult.

The Coastkeeper, and other Maryland Riverkeepers have challenged Maryland on sediment erosion control laws.  Now we are preparing a review and possible challenge to the weakest elements of the new stormwater regulations.   Between the Waterkeepers and the Consortium, good citizens are working hard (and making our state/local agencies eat lots of antacids!) to enact the best possible regulations in order to protect THEIR water - YOUR water - OUR water!

We all want to Fish - Swim - Drink clean, healthy water.  ESD will help keep pollutants and sediment to a minimum, if we can convince our elected officials to adopt strong local regulations.

To 'Prog'

I wish to use my first post to thank Tom Horton for the inspiration that led to the name of my blog.

In his 1996 book 'An Island Out Of Time', about Smith Island on the Chesapeake Bay of Maryland, Tom wrote the following passage: ...."And among them, a transcendent few are proggers, existences webbed wonderfuly into this waterland.  Their gleanings and discoveries continually enhance and reforge the bonds between human and natural communities here...A true progger loves, above all, to roam the edges where land and water merge."

Further along, he quotes an Eastern Shore waterman who says, "Proggers just go out to see what we can see, find what we can find."

How perfectly these words describe who I am and what I do.  I am the Assateague COASTKEEPER and I am one of over 200 passionate WATERKEEPERS (of the WATERKEEPER Alliance) who speak for the waterways we are assigned to protect and defend.

I spend my days 'progging' my way around the Coastal Bays of Maryland, on a small 17' Carolina Skiff, keeping an eye out for pollution discharges, buffer clearing, construction, or marsh damage that can cause harm to the waters of Assawoman Bay, Isle of Wight Bay, St. Martin River, Herring Creek, Turville Creek, Sinepuxent Bay, Newport Bay, Chincoteague Bay and all the little creeks, guts and ditches that feed into them.

I also spend my days 'progging' my way around the halls of Worcester County government, challenging when necessary, to make sure County and State environmental laws are enforced and to ensure County policies will protect and enhance the health of our waterways and natural resources of Worcester County.

These waters can not speak for themselves.  They need a voice.  The Assateague COASTKEEPER is that voice.

So thank you Tom, for the blog name.  Thank you Assateague Coastal Trust for your support of the Coastkeeper program.  Thank you Waterkeepers everywhere around the globe for your guidance, inspiration, and dedication.

My posts, from this point on, will hopefully make residents of and visitors to Worcester County aware of what is going on - whether this is happening in public forums, in legislative forums, behind closed doors, or out in the open - waiting for a progger to come along and find it.