The activist group Environment Maryland released a report today urging Maryland and the federal government to make big poultry companies more accountable for controlling polluted runoff from farms where their birds are being raised.

"Corporate Agribusiness and America's Waterways" says that the 538 million chickens raised on the Delmarva Peninsula – many of them owned by Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury – generate approximately 1.1 billion pounds of chicken litter every year.   Perdue is the nation's third largest poultry company.  Yet the manure generated by the birds raised under contract to poultry companies remains the responsibility of the farmer.  Runoff of manure and chemical fertilizer from farmland is one of the leading sources of pollution fouling the Chesapeake Bay.

Perdue does offer to remove poultry litter for free, and processes it into dry fertilizer pellets that it sells around the country.  But many farmers prefer to use the litter to fertilize their crops, since it's cheaper than chemical fertilizer.

Siding with the activist group, though, is farmer William Morrow of Emmitsburg.

“I’m a small farmer raising sheep, goats, hogs, and chickens," said Morrow. "To make sure that none of my animals’ waste winds up in nearby waters, I compost the manure, and I plant winter cover crops and buffer strips. 

"If I can clean up after my animals, then a big company like Perdue certainly can do it too," he added.  "That’s why these companies need to embrace straightforward policies to reduce the pollution their operations generate.”

Environment Maryland wants the state and federal governments to impose tighter controls on animal manure use as fertilizer as they prepare a Chesapeake Bay "pollution diet" intended to restore the estuary's water quality.  Farmers, though, are pushing back, arguing they already do plenty to protect the environment and shouldn't be subject to more regulation.  States are scheduled to finalize their bay cleanup plans by the end of this month, and the Environmental Protection Agency is to issue its diet, called a "total maximum daily load,"  by year's end.