Maryland’s chicken farming industry produces more than 220,000 tons of manure, according to state estimates.
Currently, small contract farmers are responsible for managing that waste, with some financial support from state taxpayers. However, those small contractors don’t own the birds, just the waste. A new bill before the General Assembly would shift responsibility for disposing of the excrement to the big corporations that own the bird.
All that feces being produced saturates the Eastern Shore with phosphorus and nitrogen, said Betsy Nicholas, executive director of the organization Waterkeepers Chesapeake.
“A little bit of chicken manure can be great. You can use it as a fertilizer,” she said. “But when you have too much, it runs off into our waterways, causing excess pollution.”
Nicholas said the pollution can kill fish, create algae blooms, and even affect the waterways that provide drinking water to the Baltimore and Washington metro areas.
The new bill would require the companies that own the birds to clean up the waste in an environmentally friendly way.
Multi-billion-dollar poultry corporation Perdue says it has been collecting excess litter from contract farmers for 15 years.
But at a hearing Tuesday, representatives for the company warned that the new requirements would be costly for the company and hundreds of Perdue employees on the Eastern Shore.
“Delmarva, and in particular Maryland, is an expensive place to grow and process chickens,” said Anthony Macer, director of operations for Perdue’s processing plant in Salisbury. “Facilities in states with lower operating costs, less regulatory burden and a more business-friendly environment tend to be safer bets.”