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A broadcast remark by the Obama administration's point person on the Chesapeake Bay about strengthening federal controls on farm pollution has triggered some high-level diplomacy between Annapolis and Washington.
Pressed by Lower Eastern Shore politicians who contend that "stringent" federal regulations are driving the poultry industry from the state, Gov. Martin O'Malley has exchanged letters and conferred by phone with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, seeking "clarification" about whether Maryland's chicken farmers face the prospect of tougher regulation than growers elsewhere in the country.
O'Malley wrote the EPA chief on Sept. 18, forwarding a letter he'd received from the Worcester County commissioners complaining that federal regulations imposed by the agency's regional office in Philadelphia put Maryland chicken farmers on "an uneven playing field" compared with growers in other states.
The Worcester commissioners also noted that Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury, had dropped plans to build a new $23 million hatchery in Pocomoke City - opting instead to expand operations in North Carolina - and was closing other operations in Worcester, eliminating 36 jobs in the county.
In a telephone interview last week, O'Malley said his letter was prompted not so much by the Perdue moves, but by remarks made on a talk radio show by J. Charles "Chuck" Fox, senior adviser to the EPA administrator on the bay. Fox, calling into WYPR, noted that EPA and Maryland regulators had been working to apply federal rules governing how large poultry farms must limit runoff from around their chicken houses.
On that show and in earlier public statements, Fox has noted that while development poses an increasing problem for the bay, agricultural runoff is a major source of pollution despite government practices of offering to pay farmers to voluntarily control runoff.
But Fox's broadcast remarks apparently ruffled O'Malley. He said the EPA adviser's comments got "a lot of people in [my] administration scratching their heads." O'Malley contends that Maryland leads other states in efforts to clean up the bay, though experts say there's doubt now about the effectiveness of many steps urged on farmers in all the bay states to curb pollution.
"What we don't want is to have a different set of regulations in Maryland," the governor said. The EPA chief replied in writing this week to O'Malley's letter and phone call, explaining that EPA's rules on large poultry and livestock operations are "national in scope and apply uniformly throughout the country."
Pressed by Lower Eastern Shore politicians who contend that "stringent" federal regulations are driving the poultry industry from the state, Gov. Martin O'Malley has exchanged letters and conferred by phone with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, seeking "clarification" about whether Maryland's chicken farmers face the prospect of tougher regulation than growers elsewhere in the country.
O'Malley wrote the EPA chief on Sept. 18, forwarding a letter he'd received from the Worcester County commissioners complaining that federal regulations imposed by the agency's regional office in Philadelphia put Maryland chicken farmers on "an uneven playing field" compared with growers in other states.
The Worcester commissioners also noted that Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury, had dropped plans to build a new $23 million hatchery in Pocomoke City - opting instead to expand operations in North Carolina - and was closing other operations in Worcester, eliminating 36 jobs in the county.
In a telephone interview last week, O'Malley said his letter was prompted not so much by the Perdue moves, but by remarks made on a talk radio show by J. Charles "Chuck" Fox, senior adviser to the EPA administrator on the bay. Fox, calling into WYPR, noted that EPA and Maryland regulators had been working to apply federal rules governing how large poultry farms must limit runoff from around their chicken houses.
On that show and in earlier public statements, Fox has noted that while development poses an increasing problem for the bay, agricultural runoff is a major source of pollution despite government practices of offering to pay farmers to voluntarily control runoff.
But Fox's broadcast remarks apparently ruffled O'Malley. He said the EPA adviser's comments got "a lot of people in [my] administration scratching their heads." O'Malley contends that Maryland leads other states in efforts to clean up the bay, though experts say there's doubt now about the effectiveness of many steps urged on farmers in all the bay states to curb pollution.
"What we don't want is to have a different set of regulations in Maryland," the governor said. The EPA chief replied in writing this week to O'Malley's letter and phone call, explaining that EPA's rules on large poultry and livestock operations are "national in scope and apply uniformly throughout the country."
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Perdue is moving those hard working illegal immigrant baiting jobs that no one wants away from the Eastern Shore and people find a way to blame omally. amazing. Perdue is packing up millions of tons of nitrgen that gives fish sores and disease and its omalleys fault. NC can have em. We'll take wallops island, SSU, The eastern shore is a perfect area to develop green energy, biodiesel, solar, algaefuel, methane. The EPAs mandate is to protect the environment, period. you only get one earth.
obrien2577 (10/25/2009, 11:04 PM )