A recent story in the New York Times about the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up an airliner got me thinking. The story indicated that the bomber's access to the flight was due to a series of failures in the system that is supposed to protect us from events just like this.
In fact, the bomber was actually subdued by a passenger. Not by any agent or security official. This is a perfect example of how citizens often have to step forward and take action when the agencies responsible for protecting us fail to do their job.
Ironically, the same passenger who subdued the would-be bomber was hailed as a hero.
Why isn't the same standard applied when a citizen environmental whistle blower points out that a factory, a farm, or a developer is polluting our water?
Oh sure, the results of an airplane bomb are much more spectacular. Three hundred people die in a fiery crash. CNN has news fodder for days. Wolf Blitzer brings in a sleeping bag and camps out in the 'situation room.' Fox News commentators positively squeal with glee as they report how the Obama administration is responsible for the deaths of these god-fearing Americans.
So what happens when a polluter increases nutrient levels or bacteria levels to our waterways, in numbers that are dangerous to the public health?
A physteria bloom, temporary perhaps; fishing and recreation closures; commercial fisheries shut down; hotels and motels suffer a loss of business for years to come. Fisheries are possibly damaged for years to come. And it's conceivable the drinking water for communities along the waterway will be affected.
Twenty five years ago, the Chesapeake Bay was screaming out for help. It was dying. Legislative programs were put in place to rectify the problem. In those twenty + years the health of the Bay has actually declined. All these good intentions went to waste simply because the agencies charged with enforcing the laws which would improve the Bay's health have not been doing their job any better than the TSA screeners for Northwest Flight 253.
In effect, I would be out of a job as a Waterkeeper if the agencies charged with enforcing the laws that would protect our waterways had been doing their job all along.
I have to tell you, it doesn't look like I'll be retiring anytime soon.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Poop is Poop - No Discharges!
Astonishing Admission by Perdue Follows December 17th Notice of Intent to Sue Perdue, Hudson Farm in Berlin, MD.; Fecal Coliform Level “Hundreds” of Times EPA-Permitted Level for Treated Human Sewage Deepen Concerns About Threat to Maryland Waterways and Human Health.
We are appalled to learn from Perdue’s public statements that it now admits importing human sewage into the Alan and Kristin Hudson Farm – a chicken factory farm located in Berlin, MD. Our initial assumption was that the only manure problem polluting Maryland waterways and endangering human health at the facility was related to chickens. It now appears that the ‘off the charts’ readings we detected for fecal coliform likely are also related to the human waste that Perdue has acknowledged is being shipped into the site and stored in an unsafe manner.
If Perdue and Hudson try to claim that human sewage trucked into the farm is a safe Class A biosolid, then they need to explain why we found fecal coliform levels at 100-200 times what the EPA allows for Class A biosolids. The levels we detected are comparable to what you would find in a pit of raw, untreated sewage still in liquid form.
It is mind boggling to us that a Maryland farm would be viewed by anyone as an appropriate dumping site for human sewage in any form. This is particularly true when the same farm is already the site of what appears to be an out-of-control situation with animal waste. This seems like the very definition of making an already bad situation worse, with Maryland’s waterways and residents paying the price at the expense of their health.
Unfortunately, what we’re seeing with Hudson Farm – piles of uncovered waste sitting in open fields, alongside drainage ditches that carry pollution to the area’s streams and rivers, and eventually to the Bay – is commonplace throughout the Eastern Shore. Until this industry takes responsibility for its waste, and state environmental agencies get serious about protecting our waterways, no amount of taxpayer money, ongoing study or well-intentioned legislation is going to fix the Bay’s problems.
BACKGROUND
The Hudson Farm and Perdue Farms, Inc., were the recipients on December 17, 2009 of a notice of intent to file suit for violations of the Clean Water Act at the Eastern Shore facility consisting of an 80,000-bird Concentrated Animal Feed Operation (CAFO). The factory farm is is owned by Alan Hudson, a contract grower for Perdue Farms.
The legal action against Hudson Farm and Perdue was the culmination of several years of intense scrutiny of the Maryland CAFO industry for its contribution to the ongoing decline in health of the state’s local waters. The results of recent water sampling from ditches that ran past an extensive, uncovered waste pile on the property show high levels of many toxic pollutants, including fecal coliform, phosphorus and nitrogen.
In addition, photographic evidence taken from both the ground and the air over the past few months clearly shows the runoff from the manure pile to the surrounding ditch drainage areas. The facility discharges pollution into the Franklin Branch of the Pocomoke River, which then empties into Chesapeake Bay. Both the Pocomoke and the Bay have been listed as impaired for nutrients under the Clean Water Act.
Corporate-owned, large-scale factory farm facilities in Maryland and other states nationwide produce a significant amount of waste, including manure and slaughter byproduct. This year, Maryland’s Department of the Environment finalized a state Maryland Animal Feed Operation, or MAFO, permit for some of these facilities which allow for piles of manure to sit in open fields for up to 90 days. The federal CAFO permit that Hudson Farm applied for by filing a Notice of Intent with MDE allows for stockpiling of manure for a 14-day period.
Under either the federal and state permitting system, however, discharges from manure piles are illegal. As a result of inevitable discharges from manure stockpiling, these growing operations continue to pollute drinking and recreational water supplies by fouling rivers, lakes, streams and underground aquifers with untreated livestock manure.
You can read more here, and see photos.
We are appalled to learn from Perdue’s public statements that it now admits importing human sewage into the Alan and Kristin Hudson Farm – a chicken factory farm located in Berlin, MD. Our initial assumption was that the only manure problem polluting Maryland waterways and endangering human health at the facility was related to chickens. It now appears that the ‘off the charts’ readings we detected for fecal coliform likely are also related to the human waste that Perdue has acknowledged is being shipped into the site and stored in an unsafe manner.
If Perdue and Hudson try to claim that human sewage trucked into the farm is a safe Class A biosolid, then they need to explain why we found fecal coliform levels at 100-200 times what the EPA allows for Class A biosolids. The levels we detected are comparable to what you would find in a pit of raw, untreated sewage still in liquid form.
It is mind boggling to us that a Maryland farm would be viewed by anyone as an appropriate dumping site for human sewage in any form. This is particularly true when the same farm is already the site of what appears to be an out-of-control situation with animal waste. This seems like the very definition of making an already bad situation worse, with Maryland’s waterways and residents paying the price at the expense of their health.
Unfortunately, what we’re seeing with Hudson Farm – piles of uncovered waste sitting in open fields, alongside drainage ditches that carry pollution to the area’s streams and rivers, and eventually to the Bay – is commonplace throughout the Eastern Shore. Until this industry takes responsibility for its waste, and state environmental agencies get serious about protecting our waterways, no amount of taxpayer money, ongoing study or well-intentioned legislation is going to fix the Bay’s problems.
BACKGROUND
The Hudson Farm and Perdue Farms, Inc., were the recipients on December 17, 2009 of a notice of intent to file suit for violations of the Clean Water Act at the Eastern Shore facility consisting of an 80,000-bird Concentrated Animal Feed Operation (CAFO). The factory farm is is owned by Alan Hudson, a contract grower for Perdue Farms.
The legal action against Hudson Farm and Perdue was the culmination of several years of intense scrutiny of the Maryland CAFO industry for its contribution to the ongoing decline in health of the state’s local waters. The results of recent water sampling from ditches that ran past an extensive, uncovered waste pile on the property show high levels of many toxic pollutants, including fecal coliform, phosphorus and nitrogen.
In addition, photographic evidence taken from both the ground and the air over the past few months clearly shows the runoff from the manure pile to the surrounding ditch drainage areas. The facility discharges pollution into the Franklin Branch of the Pocomoke River, which then empties into Chesapeake Bay. Both the Pocomoke and the Bay have been listed as impaired for nutrients under the Clean Water Act.
Corporate-owned, large-scale factory farm facilities in Maryland and other states nationwide produce a significant amount of waste, including manure and slaughter byproduct. This year, Maryland’s Department of the Environment finalized a state Maryland Animal Feed Operation, or MAFO, permit for some of these facilities which allow for piles of manure to sit in open fields for up to 90 days. The federal CAFO permit that Hudson Farm applied for by filing a Notice of Intent with MDE allows for stockpiling of manure for a 14-day period.
Under either the federal and state permitting system, however, discharges from manure piles are illegal. As a result of inevitable discharges from manure stockpiling, these growing operations continue to pollute drinking and recreational water supplies by fouling rivers, lakes, streams and underground aquifers with untreated livestock manure.
You can read more here, and see photos.
Monday, December 7, 2009
No Money? No Excuse to Pollute!
Voice of America recently launched a five part series on their website about the state of the Chesapeake Bay. Their reporter, Rosanne Skirble, assigned to cover the recent Obama Executive Order to get the Bay cleaned up.
The full report is interesting to watch, but what caught my attention was the part about municipal wastewater and our waterways.
In her special report segment on urban pollution, Snow Hill, MD Mayor Stephen Matthews talked about the problems with the town’s ancient combined sewer/stormwater wastewater treatment plant and admitted to Skirble and the entire world that every time it rains hard in Snow Hill they have no choice but to open the ‘flood gates’ and let raw, untreated sewage flow into the Pocomoke River.
If this horrifies you, welcome to the club. This is something we’ve been aware of for quite some time and now it’s time for more people to know.
Human waste, unlike farm animal waste, by law must be treated before it can be discharged into our waterways or applied to the land. This law also requires that those who do the discharging or application must have a federal permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.)
In Maryland, this federal program is administered by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Twenty years ago MDE entered into an agreement with the EPA to issue/renew the permits in Maryland, inspect the permit holder facilities, and enforce any violations of the permit through fines or legal actions.
But if you read between the lines of this VOA report, you quickly realize that Maryland has done little to force Snow Hill or Worcester County to stop polluting the Pocomoke River.
You'll especially like the part where Skirble & Matthews reveal a little known secret about the Snow Hill treatment plant - Worcester County actually pays Snow Hill tens of thousands of dollars a year to 'treat' waste runoff water that accumulates at the County land fill - a watery goo of landfill toxins and heavy metals that the Snow Hill wastewater treatment plant does not have the capacity to treat or filter, so it all goes into the river.
And where is MDE in all of this? The NPDES wastewater permit the State has issued to Snow Hill is expired. The State has given the County/Town extensions so the plant can continue to operate. The NPDES wastewater permit issued by the State does not cover the pollutants coming from the landfill waste.
This is one of the many reasons Waterkeepers Chesapeake, today December 7, is asking the EPA to look into Maryland's failure to adequately oversee the permitting program entrusted to it by EPA.
Read more about Waterkeepers' 58 page Citizen De-Delegation Petition, which outlines hundreds of examples of poor oversight by MDE, on the Assateague Coastal Trust website....http://www.actforbays.org/
The full report is interesting to watch, but what caught my attention was the part about municipal wastewater and our waterways.
In her special report segment on urban pollution, Snow Hill, MD Mayor Stephen Matthews talked about the problems with the town’s ancient combined sewer/stormwater wastewater treatment plant and admitted to Skirble and the entire world that every time it rains hard in Snow Hill they have no choice but to open the ‘flood gates’ and let raw, untreated sewage flow into the Pocomoke River.
If this horrifies you, welcome to the club. This is something we’ve been aware of for quite some time and now it’s time for more people to know.
Human waste, unlike farm animal waste, by law must be treated before it can be discharged into our waterways or applied to the land. This law also requires that those who do the discharging or application must have a federal permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.)
In Maryland, this federal program is administered by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Twenty years ago MDE entered into an agreement with the EPA to issue/renew the permits in Maryland, inspect the permit holder facilities, and enforce any violations of the permit through fines or legal actions.
But if you read between the lines of this VOA report, you quickly realize that Maryland has done little to force Snow Hill or Worcester County to stop polluting the Pocomoke River.
You'll especially like the part where Skirble & Matthews reveal a little known secret about the Snow Hill treatment plant - Worcester County actually pays Snow Hill tens of thousands of dollars a year to 'treat' waste runoff water that accumulates at the County land fill - a watery goo of landfill toxins and heavy metals that the Snow Hill wastewater treatment plant does not have the capacity to treat or filter, so it all goes into the river.
And where is MDE in all of this? The NPDES wastewater permit the State has issued to Snow Hill is expired. The State has given the County/Town extensions so the plant can continue to operate. The NPDES wastewater permit issued by the State does not cover the pollutants coming from the landfill waste.
This is one of the many reasons Waterkeepers Chesapeake, today December 7, is asking the EPA to look into Maryland's failure to adequately oversee the permitting program entrusted to it by EPA.
Read more about Waterkeepers' 58 page Citizen De-Delegation Petition, which outlines hundreds of examples of poor oversight by MDE, on the Assateague Coastal Trust website....http://www.actforbays.org/
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