Chesapeake Bay Action Plan

Thousands of tons of raw animal manure is put on Maryland farm fields each year from tens of millions of chickens and hundreds of thousands of pigs, cows, and other farm animals. Under pressure to reduce this significant source of Bay pollutants, the Maryland Department of Agriculture proposed soft new nutrient management regulations to deal with this problem last October but withdrew them under pressure from the farm and environmental community. These regulations were to better manage the farm application of manure, human sludge, and other fertilizers but were greatly weakened to meet the objections of the ag lobby.

After eight months of negotiations and efforts to strengthen the regulations as we have advocated in our Bay Action Plan [Nutrient Management Letter to Governor-Bay Cabinet], new regulations were proposed and published in the Maryland Register on June 29. These regs are still much too weak and fall well short of the Senior Scientists and Policymakers for the Bay science-based positions. Representatives of our group had discussed our positions in detail with the Bay Cabinet at a meeting last September. We have continued to advocate these common sense positions and members of our group sent detailed letter to the Governor and published an Op-ed in the Baltimore Sun ]NMR Sun OpEd No more half-measures June 18 2012 detailing the need for better management of animal manure and other nutrients.

Essentially, our recommendations center on the belief that that all animal manure—and all biosolids—should be regulated the same as human sludge from advanced wastewater treatment plants is regulated under MDE regs when these nutrient-containing materials are applied to farm land. Working with all major Maryland environmental groups, our recomemndations were fine tuned and those of other groups were combined in a JOINT STATEMENT calling for the adoption of the proposed regulations with 8 ESSENTIAL CHANGES. These changes address the shortcomings in the proposed manure regulations. The 8 Essential Changes in the proposed regs would do a lot to reduce nutrients that are choking the Bay–more than almost any other proposed or current law or regulation. NMR ENVIRO STATEMENT W Sign ons July 3 2012

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The conservation community needs your help in working to gain the changes we have long supported. Remember the serious diseased fish and human infections in 1997 linked to excess nutrients from manure and other farm activities? Here’s help you can help in our uphill battle to improve the regulations:

1. SEND IN AN EMAILED LTR OF SUPPORT TO THE AELR COMMITTEE.

The Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review held a legislative hearing on July 10 at which the Maryland Farm Bureau and rural legislators attacked the proposed regulations. Conservation groups testified in support of the adoption of the proposed regulations with the 8 Essential Changes. Please send a letter supporting the adoption of the proposed regulations with the 8 ESSENTIAL CHANGES. you should email it to the AELR Committee Chairs: Senator Paul Pinsky via Ian Ullman, <IUllman@senate.state.md.us> and Delegate Anne Healey at: anne.healey@house.state.md.us  Address the email to: Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review, c/o Department of Legislative Services, Legislative Services Building, 90 State Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401 and send copies to the two Legislative Services staff members, Mr. Isaacson: evan.isaacson@mlis.state.md.ud and Ms. Razulis at: marie.razulis@mlis.state.md.us asking that your email ltr be delivered to all AELR Committee members.

2. ATTEND AND SPEAK AT A REGIONAL MDA HEARING ON THE REGS.

Our group of Senior Scientists and Policymakers is working with others in the conservation community to assure a good turnout and to present a unified stand at the MDA hearings on the regs. You can present your support for adoption of the regulations as in the Joint Statement and of the 8 ESSENTIAL CHANGES and add your own personal insights and try to have others attend the meetings in Easton and Prince Frederick. The meetings run from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Eastern Shore

Monday, July 23, 2012

Talbot Community Center

10028 Ocean Gateway

Easton, MD 21601

Southern Maryland

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Calvert County Fairgrounds

140 Calvert Fair Drive

Prince Frederick, MD 20610

3. SEND IN AN EMAILED OR FAX’D LTR OF SUPPORT TO MDA.

Written comments may be sent to Jo Mercer, Ed.D., Program Manager, MDA’s Nutrient Management Program, Maryland Department of Agriculture, 50 Harry S. Truman Parkway, Annapolis, MD 21401, or email: jo.mercer@maryland.gov, or fax to (410) 841-5950. Comments will be accepted through August 13, 2012. Urge adoption of the proposed nutrient management regulations with the 8 ESSENTIAL CHANGES.

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Posted By Gerald W. Winegrad, Walter Boynton, Thomas R. Fisher, Bernie Fowler, Parris N. Glendening and Tom Horton

After 28 years of formal efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the single most successful efforts have been in curbing bay-choking nutrient pollutants from sewerage treatment plants, so-called “point sources” from pipes. Maryland has been a leader in these efforts with passage of the Flush Tax in 2004 and its extension in 2012. This will assure that 69 of the largest Maryland plants will be removing both phosphorus and nitrogen to very low levels, approaching the limits of technology. These efforts are paid for by most Marylanders by fees on water and sewer bills.

Maryland is expected to meet strict nutrient reduction targets under the EPA-imposed bay pollution diet (known as the TMDL) by 2017. The state will accomplish much of that effort through these improvements to wastewater plants. Unfortunately, by 2020, the amount of nutrient pollutants will rise again and continue to rise as population increases and more wastewater flows to these plants. This is after the expenditure of more than $1.4 billion on these upgrades.

To significantly reduce nutrient pollution and meet the EPA deadlines, Maryland (and all bay states) have to do much more to reduce the flow of pollutants from nonpoint source runoff, primarily from agriculture and developed urban areas. The substantial fish kills in Baltimore area creeks and rivers reported in the past weeks by The Sun are linked to such nutrient pollution.

These nonpoint sources contribute around 80 percent of the nutrients and all of the human-caused sediment destroying the bay’s water quality and living resources. The addition of chicken manure and fertilizer to row crops on the Eastern Shore exacerbates the problem, as many creeks and rivers on the shore are seriously degraded by nutrient and sediment pollutants, the vast majority of which come from farm lands.

The Senior Scientists and Policymakers for the Bay, of which we are all members, found that the voluntary, collaborative approach under the bay program has not worked, and current efforts have been insufficient and are failing. The group found the main barriers to restoration were these nonpoint sources: agricultural pollution and the pollution from new and previously developed areas.

Agriculture is the greatest source of nutrients and sediment pollution to the bay and the most cost-effective pollution source from which to achieve reductions. We write to re-affirm the critical need to better address nonpoint pollution and to abandon the current, mostly voluntary, efforts to curb farm pollution.

The O’Malley Administration has a major opportunity to assert leadership in addressing these farm pollution sources coming from more than a million tons of untreated farm animal manure and millions of pounds of chemical fertilizers applied to farmlands. The pending nutrient management regulations from Maryland’s Department of Agriculture are long overdue, and as proposed, they fall well short of what is needed and supported by sound science.

We stand behind theBay Scientists group’s unanimous conclusion that all raw, untreated farm animal manure be handled the same as treated human sludge when placed on farm fields.  The Maryland Department of Environment has strictly regulated human sludge since 1985. Why should the land application of untreated animal waste be treated differently than the treated sewage sludge from advanced wastewater treatment plants that destroy pathogens and remove all or a high percentage of contaminants? (Here is a copy of the letter sent to Governor in December 2012 on this subject)

Specifically, the proposed regulations from MDA should mirror the MDE requirements for human biosolids and should:

•Prohibit winter application of manure and all nutrients from November 1 through March 1. This requirement should be met beginning on October 1, 2013 and not be postponed until 2016 as proposed by MDA. The prohibition should be from November 1 statewide and not be allowed to slip to November 16 for all western shore farms as proposed by MDA. This two-week period is critical to prevent much more nutrient pollution.

•Require all manure and biosolids to be incorporated into the soil by the end of each working day. Allowing a 48-hour deadline, as proposed by MDA, would allow for the release of much more nutrients.

•Prohibit the application of manure and other phosphorus-containing nutrients to agricultural land where the soils are already phosphorus saturated (as is the case in a large fraction of Maryland’s Eastern Shore farmland). The MDA proposed regulations do not change the weak current requirements on this.

•Require the planting of a winter cereal grain cover crop by October 31 when manure or biosolids are applied earlier, which the proposed regulations do not require.

•Establish buffers as exist for sludge applications to protect streams and rivers from runoff, including a 100- foot buffer in the critical area. The proposed MDA changes only require a maximum 35-foot buffer, with significant exceptions, and the proposed changes do not cover ditches and other water bodies covered under the MDE regulations for sludge applications.

Finally, it is critical that MDE be given joint authority with MDA for adequate monitoring and enforcement of the provisions of the nutrient management regulations. Current farming practices are not being properly monitored, and laws are not properly enforced.

The requirements for human sludge have assured that only 25 percent of treated sewage sludge is applied to Maryland agricultural land. Nearly 90 percent of farm animal manure is deposited on farm fields. Sensibly regulating farm pollutants as noted above would reduce nitrogen pollution by more than removing all 425,000 septic systems in Maryland and would remove much more of the polluting phosphorus.

Unlike the Flush Tax, these changes might not cost the taxpayer a dime unless farm operatorsapply for the many grants available to them. For example, the Maryland Agricultural Cost Share Program has provided about $140 million in taxpayer funded grants to farmers, including up to 87.5 percent of the cost of manure handling structures as well as subsidies to transport manure off the farm where it is produced. (here is a letter from farmers expressing support for stronger regulations)

If the O’Malley administration does not stand up to the opposition from the agriculture lobby and the major chicken conglomerates that have successfully blocked the necessary changes to farm practices, efforts to restore the bay could be doomed. Maryland has been and must again assert leadership and properly regulate farm pollutants, particularly from manure. We can turn around the decline of the Chesapeake Bay estuary, but not with half-measures.

Gerald W. Winegrad and Bernie Fowler are former members of the Maryland Senate. Parris Glendening is a former Maryland governor. Walter Boynton is an ecologist with the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. Thomas Fisher is a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Tom Horton is an author and former Sun reporter. The views expressed are their own and not necessarily those of the organizations with which they are affiliated.

This post was published on June 18, 2012 in the Baltimore Sun:

www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-manure-regulations-20120617,0,1876551.story

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