Splashback
Slime & Thermal Pollution

Dear Waterkeepers,

I just tripped into another element that compounds nutrient pollution and power plant thermal pollution. Here on the Western Lake Erie, a Toledo wastewater treatment plant’s outfall sits near the cooling water intake of the massive Bayshore power plant. Eighty percent of the Maumee River, which receives phosphorous-enriched wastewater effluent, is pumped through the power plant in the late-summer early-fall. We are fertilizing and heating our river, creating the perfect algae growth environment and spurring massive algal blooms. It’s time our treatment plants start removing phosphorous and our power plants stop using our waterways to cool their engines.

Sandy Bihn
Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper

State Secrets:
Maryland’s Chicken Farms, part II
By Jillian Gladstone, Waterkeeper Alliance Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator

On November 1, 2007, Waterkeeper Alliance convened nearly 200 farmers, state and federal officials, industry representatives, scientists and environmentalists on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to talk about the poultry industry and the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore Poultry Summit was an unprecedented gathering, engaging attendees in a spirited debate, and giving everyone an opportunity to speak and be heard. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. gave a rousing speech about the environmental devastation wrought by industrial livestock production, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler called for alternative uses for the voluminous waste produced and industry representative Bill Satterfield discussed the strategies the poultry industry is employing to protect local waterways. Since the meeting a fire-storm of debate has raged in local newspapers of the Delmarva Peninsula. Reaction to Kennedy’s speech was telling. While much of the audience responded with a standing ovation, others in the room sat quietly with arms crossed before standing and leaving the room.

Waterkeeper Alliance is filing a lawsuit against the Maryland Department of Agriculture, challenging the state policy of keeping poultry farm nutrient management plans hidden from public review [See Waterkeeper fall issue, State Secrets: What are they Hiding on Maryland Chicken Farms.] These management plans specify how and where manure from livestock facilities will be disposed. They are a key to keeping communities informed about the threats to their waterways and ensuring proper disposal of waste. While most states uphold the Clean Water Act requirement that these plans are available to the public, Maryland’s regulators have colluded with the poultry industry to keep them secret.

Each year, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution rob half the bay of oxygen necessary to support life. Big Poultry on the Delmarva Peninsula contributes a significant amount of this nutrient pollution. These large-scale poultry farms produce over 2.5 billion pounds of chicken waste each year – more than three times the waste produced by the human population in the area. Human waste must be treated before it is released into the environment, but the chicken waste is piled up or stored in pits before it runs off into local waters and the Chesapeake Bay. Waterkeeper Alliance’s Chesapeake Initiative has brought this issue to the forefront of public discourse – an important step in forcing Maryland and the poultry industry to get their waste out of Chesapeake Bay.

Right to Know

New York citizens have made their right to know loud and clear. Delaware Riverkeeper and the Humane Society filed legal action against the New York Department of Environmental Conservation after the agency refused public access to waste management plans for a duck facility in Sullivan County, NY, called Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Under federal and state law, polluters must share the terms of pollution permits with the public. As a result of the Delaware Riverkeeper and Humane Society’s action, this October the state decided to release the withheld documents. Citizens will now be able to hold the facility accountable for pollution.

CREDIT

Waterkeeper magazine recognizes Kenneth R. Weiss of the Los Angeles Times as part of the inspiration behind the fall 2007 issue.  Mr. Weiss’ five-part series “Altered Oceans,” included “Primeval Tide of Toxins” and popularized Dr. Jeremy Jackson’s notion of the “rise of slime.” For the outstanding series, Mr. Weiss and other Los Angeles Times reporters received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

CORRECTION

Due to an editing error, Georgia’s Precious Blackwaters Turn Green by Chandra Brown and Gordon Rogers read that Satilla Riverkeeper “won a court order” issued to the City of Douglas. In fact: “Satilla Riverkeeper gave input to and now monitors the consent order.”