“We really create so much waste each year, we have to come up with more ways to use it,” said Megan Cronin, the Chesapeake Bay program associate for Environment Maryland.
Cronin said that the pollution caused by the poultry industry – nearly 300 million broiler chickens in 2007, producing about 550,000 tons of chicken litter – is starting to command more attention. The federal government is creating strict regulations to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.
Additionally the “P-index,” Maryland’s current method of measuring the amount of phosphorus that can be put on a field, still allows manure to be used as fertilizer on phosphorus-saturated fields. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rejected the “P-index” because it finds that it can allow for excessive phosphorus runoff into the Bay.
Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration has been working to update guidelines that regulate what farmers can place on their soil. In late October, the Maryland Agriculture Department submitted proposed changes to the state Nutrient Management Regulations Manual to the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review for approval. Cronin said the initial version of these changes was applauded by the environmental community.
If changes to the regulations are approved by the committee, they will be published in the Maryland Register for public comment and potential revision before they are implemented.
The Environment Maryland study recommends that new guidelines be developed to stop farmers from applying too much phosphorus-rich chicken litter to their soil. Cronin said this could include steps like prohibiting application while fields are frozen and less likely to absorb the nutrients, and requiring more of a wooded “buffer zone” be placed between fields and the waterways.
More poultry producers could also have their waste made into fertilizer pellets, which can more easily be moved away from the Chesapeake Bay and its already phosphorus-rich soil. For example, the Perdue AgriRecycle facility in Delaware pays to have poultry litter trucked in and made into pellets.
Last week, the Board of Public Works approved a 30-year lease for Maryland-based EcoCorp to build an anaerobic digester to turn chicken litter into electricity on land near Eastern Correctional Institute in Westover. James Harkins, director of Maryland Environmental Service, said that the plant will recycle up to 5,500 tons of poultry waste and supply about a quarter of the power for the prison. Harkins called the plan a “really grand pilot demonstration” to do something new with poultry waste. – Megan Poinski
Tod Engelskirchen says
It is all related to money. If it is cheaper to dump the waste in the bay than to process it into something more benign, then it will go into the bay in some way or another. If industry has to pay the true cost of business then things could be very different.
Think about the money the poultry industry spends to lobby Congress and Annapolis. If it is cheaper to do that than fix the problem, then they will spend the money they need to spend to avoid facing a real issue.
Kathy Bosin says
Exactly. And people want cheap chicken. But the price doesn’t reflect the true cost of that chicken if it doesn’t include the costs associated with the Bay and the environment in general. Don’t you just wonder sometimes, when you see groceries selling an already cooked rotisserie chicken for under 6 dollars? A whole chicken, including the cost of cooking it? Something is wrong with this picture, Delmarva. Really wrong.