From the
Williamsport Sun-Gazette
Farmers doing their part with Chesapeake Bay cleanup
By DAVID THOMPSON
dthompson@sungazette.com POSTED: March 23, 2008
Are Pennsylvania farmers doing enough to address the problems associated with the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort?
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau believes they are in spite of some allegations that municipalities are unfairly bearing the brunt of cleanup efforts.
According the bureau, Pennsylvania farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are meeting the mandatory nutrient reduction requirements outlined in the bay compliance plan.
Their efforts have been recognized by two major stakeholders in the cleanup initiative — the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, according to bureau media relations director Mark O’Neill.
“In years past, no agency has pushed farmers harder to comply (with the cleanup regulations) than the DEP,” O’Neill said. “With the Bay Foundation, if you go back in time, they were pressuring farmers to do more. We worked with them ... and they are seeing progress.”
According to O’Neill, preliminary studies by the bay foundation have shown over the last 15 years farmers have invested $357 million in nutrient management practices such as stream buffers and manure pits.
A new, more in depth report by the foundation, due out in two or three months, will show that total actually is much higher, he said.
The response by farmers to enroll in Resource Enhancement and Protection program, or REAP, shows there is a willingness and a demand within the farming community to reduce nutrients entering the watershed.
The state program, which was instituted last fall, provides tax credits to farmers and businesses for implementing conservation practices such as riparian buffers, no-till planting, stream fencing and other practices that reduce sediment and nutrients from entering the watershed.
Within days after the program’s application period began, the $10 million set aside for the program was exhausted, O’Neill said.
A new round of funding is included in Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2008-2009 budget, O’Neill said.
“We believe that (funding) is absolutely appropriate,” he said.
In 2007, more than half of all major crop acreage was no-till, which mean the crops are planted without plowing fields, resulting in reduced soil erosion and preservation of soil nutrients, according to the bureau.
Unfortunately, people living in municipalities served by sewage treatment plants facing multi-million dollar improvements are accusing farmers of not doing their part to clean up the watershed, O’Neill said.
“It’s false accusations,” he said.
“We’re not disputing that some of the nutrients getting into the watershed and bay comes from (farms) and is greater than what is coming from sewage treatment plants,” O’Neill said. “They are asking agriculture to deal with the same percentage. If they are putting in four time the amount (of nutrients), they’re being asked to reduce four times more.”
“The idea is, if we are responsible for more, we are also responsible to reduce more,” he said.
Also untrue are allegations that farms are unregulated, O’Neill said.
Large concentrated animal feeding operations or concentrated animal operations are highly regulated and must adhere to best management practices, including those associated with nutrient runoff, he said.
Additionally, 1,200 state farms have voluntarily agreed to submit to regulations associated with concentrated animal feeding operations even though the law does not required them to do it, he said.
According to Rodney Morehart, Chesapeake Bay technician with the Lycoming County Conservation District, there are 10 concentrated animal feeding or concentrated animal operations totalling 1,300 acres in the county. those operations automatically fall under bay nutrient management regulations, he said.
There are 16 county farms totalling between 3,000 and 3,5000 acres have voluntarily signed up for the bay program, primarily through a state or federal conservation program.
Many are comparing what it costs farmers to what it costs sewage treatment systems to reduce nutrients entering the watershed, he said.
“Looking at the numbers, maybe it costs less for farmers to meet their goals than municipalities,” he said. “That doesn’t mean farmers aren’t doing their fair share. Nobody is happy to see the projects costs.”
According to Morehart, farmers understand the importance of the Chesapeake Bay program.
“It comes down to money,” he said. “Do they have the money to do something? With our area being mainly dairy farming, the money is not there with milk prices as low as they are.”
“If they got to the point where they were making money, they’d be putting conservation practices on the ground,” he said.
The agricultural community has been invited to attend a Chesapeake Bay watershed stakeholders workshop at the Old Lycoming Township Volunteer Fire Co. fire hall.
The workshop is being held to develop a county-wide strategy of dealing with state-mandated nutrient management requirements.
Reservations can be made by calling the county Department of Planning and Community Development at 320-2130.
I forgot all about that !! Banksy's right about the name we once gave to the river. We had always been cautioned not to go near it because of what could be floating around in there. As kids, we had a lot of places to play, but, the river wasn't one of them. Now, it's GREAT to know that folks, such as Bill Anderson, are concerned with it's welfare and see it as more than just any 'ole river. I do hope they consider his thoughts, along with sandstone, Ice Man, and others, when it comes to flood control, clean-up, and what the ljr means to this area in general.
Bad, real bad !! 