Reports Detail Impacts of Agriculture on Chesapeake Bay Water Quality

According to two new reports by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and PennFuture, farm animal manure is the largest source of pollution damaging local rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay.

CBF's new report, "Manure's Impact on Rivers, Streams, and the Chesapeake Bay," outlines a series of actions to stop the damage from this pollution. The 185 million livestock animals in the watershed, more than 11 times the human population, produce 1.4 billion cubic feet (44 million tons) of manure. That's enough manure to fill more than 405,000 tractor trailers that would stretch from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco and back to Madison, Wisconsin. Manure is an inefficient fertilizer because it is expensive to transport, so it often ends up on nearby land, which may become overloaded with nutrients.  A number of emerging environmental issues beyond nutrient and bacteria pollution associated with manure further emphasize the need to properly manage animal waste. The report outlines key strategies to manage manure pollution problems in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including implementing tributary strategies, funding the Chesapeake Bay federal Farm Bill proposal, reducing the amount of nutrient pollutants in manure by reducing nutrient levels in animal feed, and establishing viable alternative uses for manure. To read the full report, visit http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=9141.

PennFuture has also recently released a report, “A Barrel Full of Holes: A Case Study of Pennsylvania Regulations on High Density Livestock Farm Pollution.”  The report features a review of the Nutrient Management Plans and the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permits in Watershed 7-K of the State Water Plan.  Watershed 7-K straddles the Lancaster/Chester County line and continues over the Maryland border. The PennFuture report shows that despite a vigorous outreach and oversight effort, the nutrient management plans that are in place are not being fully implemented and 59 percent of the livestock operators were in violation of their plans at the time of the review. http://www.pennfuture.org/files/news/BarrelFulOfHoles.doc.

Two recent developments may eventually lead to improvements in animal waste disposal in the Chesapeake Bay and other watersheds. First, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board recently ruled that nutrient management plans must now account for phosphorus. This ruling will help protect local water quality. The ruling will also result in many acres of farm fields being ruled out for manure disposal. Second, the Pennsylvania legislature recently passed a requirement that livestock operations which export manure must create nutrient balance sheets for fields where the manure will be spread and track where it’s going.