Perdue disputes ACT claim,says it’s not chicken manure

The Hudson farm in Berlin uses biosolids from the Ocean City wastewater treatment plant, but Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips and the Waterkeepers allege the pile behind one of the buildings is chicken manure. (Dec. 25, 2009) Perdue Farms says an environmental group is mistaken in its claims that a pile of chicken manure is polluting the water. The “pile” is not manure at all, but biosolids from the Ocean City wastewater treatment plant.

“We recommend the Waterkeepers check their facts before they make allegations that can damage reputations,” said Luis Luna, vice president of corporate relations for Perdue Incorporated, in a press release. “The right thing for them to do at this point is to issue a retraction and an apology.”

Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips, who took aerial photographs of the site, and the Waterkeeper Alliance announced last Thursday that they had sent a notice of intent to file suit against the chicken farm owned by Alan Hudson and Perdue Farms for violations of the Clean Water Act. Hudson is a contract grower for Perdue Farms and raises 80,000 chickens.

In a press release issued Dec. 17, the Waterkeeper Alliance said the legal action against Hudson Farm and Perdue was the culmination of several years of intense scrutiny of the industry for its “contribution to the ongoing decline in health of the state’s local waters. The results of recent water sampling from ditches that ran past an extensive, uncovered manure pile on the property show high levels of many toxic pollutants, including fecal coliform, phosphorus and nitrogen.”

Waterkeeper Alliance staff attorney Liane Curtis said the existence of the outside manure pile was “outrageously irresponsible behavior on the part of industry and a lack of diligent oversight by state officials that continues to put Maryland’s waterways and residents at great risk. As long as these types of activities continue, we will never see a healthy and reinvigorated Chesapeake Bay.”

When told Monday that Perdue said the pile is not chicken manure, Scott Edwards, the director of advocacy for the Waterkeepers Alliance, said he had no confirmation of that. Evidence showed, he said, the ditches off that farm show pollution that typically results from manure.

Even if it is proven to his satisfaction that the pile is biosolids, “That’s not going to tell me anything,” Edwards said. He added that it is not illegal to pile up manure, it is illegal to pollute the waters and the Waterkeepers have evidence of polluted water in a ditch near the Hudson farm. Phillips said her photos show trenches had been dug from the pile to a ditch, allowing pollutants to enter the ditch. The Waterkeepers’ testing site was downstream from that ditch.

“Unfortunately, what we’re seeing with Hudson Farm – piles of uncovered chicken manure sitting in open fields, alongside drainage ditches that carry pollution to the area’s streams and rivers, and eventually to the Bay – is commonplace throughout the Eastern Shore,” Edwards said in the press release. “EPA Region III has done some good work trying to control Maryland’s CAFO industry, but we’re not going to see change without citizens enforcing the law themselves.”

But in reply to the charges, Luna issued a release saying, “We have confirmed the material the Waterkeepers alleged is poultry litter is actually biosolids from the Ocean City waste treatment facility. We understand that, prior to the Waterkeepers’ news release, the Waterkeepers’ Kathy Phillips spoke to an Ocean City Public Works Department about similar piles on other farms, and she was told they were from Ocean City’s waste treatment facility.”

On Tuesday, Jim Parsons, chief deputy of utilities for the town of Ocean City, confirmed Luna’s statement that the pile is not manure, but biosolids. The class A biosolids are heat pasteurized and lime stabilized. Farmers want the high lime content because soils in the area are typically acidic and the lime keeps the pH level where they want it.

Hudson has been using biosolids from the Ocean City plant for about three years. Ocean City delivers it to his farm and the most recent delivery was in August, Parsons said.

Phillips had no statement for Ocean City Today and forwarded the newspaper’s questions to the Waterkeepers’ legal department.

Despite the Waterkeepers’ allegations, Perdue already takes responsible action to protect the environment and its Clean Water Initiative “provides training, assistance and environmental assistance for poultry producers to enhance the compliance of their poultry operations with federal, state and local environmental regulations,” Perdue’s Web site says.

Perdue’s Clean Water Initiative, a cooperative agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency that began in November 2008, started training poultry producers with more than 100,000 chickens in April 2008, said Steve Schwalb, Perdue’s vice president of environmental sustainability. Training for producers of 60,000 to 100,000 chickens will begin in April 2010.

According to the press release, the Waterkeeper organizations plan on filing a case in federal court against Hudson Farm and Perdue after the 60-day notice period expires, in which they will be seeking an injunction against further pollution, an order to clean up the mess, and fines for each day of violation. Waterkeepers will be represented by attorneys with Waterkeeper Alliance and by the University of Maryland Law School Environmental Law Clinic.