Keeping a promise is a hallmark trait of any politician. Governor Hogan has moved swiftly and decisively in keeping his campaign vow to address the phosphate (chicken manure) issue which is critical to the state economy, and indeed a way of life, especially on the Eastern Shore.
The Governor has, in just a month in office, announced revised regulations which appear acceptable to both agricultural interests and environmental advocates. Apparently, compromise works.
The Governor has also just announced his plan to attack the serious problem of heroin use and distribution, in Maryland. Local officials all over the state have informed the Governor that this issue has become a major problem in their jurisdictions.
On the Eastern Shore, it appears that Route 301 has become a major drug trafficking route. Due to its location, this highway is a major thoroughfare where local dealers purchase their supplies from large metropolitan dealers for redistribution and sale in a number of towns and counties on the Eastern Shore.
The chicken litter or phosphate problem has arisen due to the use of chicken litter as fertilizer for Eastern Shore fields. For years, this has been a significant problem since regulations primarily concerning potential hazards to the Chesapeake Bay from ground runoff were promulgated just as the O’Malley administration was winding down.
During the recent campaign and gubernatorial election, now Governor Hogan made this issue one of the main planks of his platform. His halting of the implementation of the rules proposed by the former Governor and Annapolis bureaucrats was a first step to making changes to the onerous regulations foisted on the farmers of the Eastern Shore.
More recently, Governor Hogan announced amended regulations which seem less burdensome and acceptable.
As perhaps expected, the state’s largest newspaper is presuming to tell the agriculture community what is best for them, chastising the Governor for not going far enough in his proposed changes to the PMT rules.
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Stephen Bender says
Dear Talbot Spy,
Mr. Hall’s comments bring to mind Garrett Hardin’s discussion some 50 years ago of the tragedy of the commons: Multiple individuals and groups of individuals in a society acting independently and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest will ultimately destroy a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone’s long term interest for this to happen. It is well recognized that using less manure as a source of phosphorus will cut profits in the short term – unless of course the market asks the consumers to pay the real cost of production. But then again the list is long in Maryland of the economic sectors that have had to change their ways so as to pollute less and keep longer term interests at heart. Surely we are a better society than to let a shared limited resource like the Chesapeake Bay continue to fall prey to short term profits. Is this the society we want?
Stephen Bender
Tilghman’s Island, Maryland