Eastern Shore farmers have organized a fund-raiser Saturday (Nov. 6) for the Worcester County farm couple facing a pollution lawsuit, and the agriculture secretaries of Maryland and Delaware are expected to be on hand to show their support.
Proceeds from the $20-per-person chicken-and-barbecue dinner at the Showell volunteer fire hall are to go to Alan and Kristin Hudson of Berlin to help them pay their legal fees defending against the lawsuit, said Lee Richardson, a poultry farmers from Willards. Richardson said the top ag officials were expected to attend this, the second fund-raiser held for the Hudsons.
The Hudsons were sued last spring by the Waterkeeper Alliance and a pair of local Shore environmental groups, alleging that waste from the Hudsons' farm had fouled a tributary of the Pocomoke River. The suit also names Perdue Farms, alleging that the giant poultry company based in Salisbury shares responsiblity because the Hudsons raised Cornish game hens under contract. Both have denied polluting.
Richardson said Shore farmers and their supporters consider the lawsuit "ridiculous" because they don't believe chicken manure had anything to do with the high bacteria levels measured in the drainage ditch running through the Hudsons' farm.
"If there had been a pile of chicken manure there, I wouldn't have been involved in this event," Richardson said.
Before filing suit, the Assateague Coastkeeper and the Waterkeeper Alliance published an aerial photograph of what they said was chicken manure on the farm draining into a ditch, and said water sampled downstream showed high levels of bacteria, nutrients and ammonia.
Inspectors with the Maryland Department of the Environment subsequently identified the pile as sewage sludge from Ocean City, and required it to be moved back from the ditch and covered.
The state fined the Hudsons $4,000 for improper storage of sewage sludge, but closed its investigation of the ditch pollution without determining the source. Inspectors confirmed the high bacteria levels in the farm ditch, but not from the pile.
Activists, who contend the state is cozy with farmers, have faulted inspectors for not examining the pile more thoroughly or for looking for other possible sources. But state officials contend the high bacteria readings could just as well have come from wildlife droppings in or near the ditch.
A spokeswoman confirmed that Maryland ag secretary Earl "Buddy" Hance would be there.
"He's attending to support a farm family who is struggling to pay their legal fees," said Julie Oberg, spokeswoman for the