Eastern Shore Residents Held Rally On International World Water Day; Group Delivers 1000 Petitions to Tyson Plant

Eastern Shore residents and the local chapter of Mighty Earth’s “Clean It Up, Tyson!” campaign will held a rally on World Water Day calling on Tyson Foods to adopt better agricultural practices that address widespread water pollution caused by its supply chain. Residents are concerned about the impacts of Tyson’s plans to expand their operations in this region, which may have serious economic, environmental, and public health impacts.

Mighty Earth Eastern Shore rallies for clean water (MEES Photo)

The rally took place on International World Water Day, an annual event which raises global awareness around the importance of clean drinking water and sustainable water management. The meat industry is the leading source of water pollution in the U.S. Citizen speakers at the World Water Day Rally discussed the public health problems related to the industrial meat industry’s water pollution and will call on Tyson to deliver on sustainability promises by protecting and preserving water on the Shore.

Following the rally, citizens delivered 1000 petitions calling on Tyson foods to address water pollution to the Temperanceville Processing Plant.

A letter to Tyson signed by over 100 chefs urging the company to adopt sustainable agricultural practices was also delivered.

Using a strategy is based on the 1990s lawsuits against tobacco companies, New York City and several California municipalities are suing big oil companies, alleging they concealed what they knew about climate change, and are liable for damage caused by rising global temperatures.

In a recent interview with BP CEO Bob Dudley said, “People don’t need to smoke cigarettes, but they have needed energy for many decades,” Dudley told me earlier this month. “If you’re asking me can the legal system do something like that, I don’t know. But do I think it’s right? Absolutely not.”

A CEO publicly commenting on pending legal matters is rare, and it shows these lawsuits are rattling the industry.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his lawsuit the day after this interview, while the California cities and counties filed theirs last year.

“The tobacco lawsuits were crucial to changing the public understanding about tobacco,” de Blasio said at a news conference earlier this month. “So these actions today we see as crucial to changing the assumptions. We no longer assume that the fossil fuel companies are innocent.”

Unlike with cigarettes, charges of hypocrisy prevelent because everyone — including de Blasio — uses fossil fuels.

“If the lawsuits are going to matter, it’s in changing the status quo,” said Michael Livermore, a professor at the University of Virginia law school. “The problem has always been that the status quo is acceptable for the major emitters.”

A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, S.2421, would exempt concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), including the poultry industry, from reporting the hazardous substances emitted from their facilities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). CAFOs generate massive quantities of animal waste which can release substantial amounts of hazardous emissions like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide into the air.

In 2017, as a result of a lawsuit brought by the Waterkeeper Alliance and partners, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an EPA rule that allowed CAFOs to avoid reporting their releases of hazardous substances under CERCLA. The decision means that CAFOs would finally have to begin reporting their significant toxic emissions – like every other industry. This bill threatens to eliminate the progress made in holding CAFOs accountable for their impacts on our communities and environment.

Shorekeeper Executive Director, Jay Ford, released the following statement on S.2421,

“We are calling on Virginia’s Senators to oppose this legislation that endangers the health of rural communities and our waters. The releases coming from these CAFOs are massive and we have a right to track the hazardous material pouring into our communities. Senate Bill 2421 tells rural America that we will not entitled to the same safeguards as the rest of our country.

According to tables provided by the EPA, one large poultry farm can produce more than two thousand pounds of ammonia per day. In Accomack county alone, we are on course to exceed 500 houses with ammonia totals that outstrip many other industrial facilities.

Additionally, airshed models for the Chesapeake Bay Clean-up plan, show animal agriculture emissions as the only sector of airborne nitrogen that is continuing to grow. These releases are offsetting progress made in other air pollution sectors and hindering our ability to reach 2025 Chesapeake Bay Clean up goals.

Concerns about community heath impacts from CAFOs have been raised by the CDC and Johns Hopkins University. Furthermore, Maryland is currently considering legislation to study the impacts of these emissions on the well-being of surrounding communities. With so many unsettled questions surrounding potential health impacts this legislation is simply irresponsible.

Industry has expended considerable resources fighting in the courts and now in the U.S. Senate to prevent rural citizens from learning about their toxic releases. Rather than exempting CAFOs from reporting, we should be asking why they are so concerned with hiding the amount of hazardous materials they generate. Shorekeeper is calling on our leaders in Washington to protect our communities and our waters first. This is a matter of environmental justice, plain and simple. This exemption would never fly in more urban areas and rural Virginia deserves the same protections under the law. “

The VA Coastal Zone Management Program, NOAA, and George Mason University have released a study about the economic impact of conserved lands in Accomack and Northamton counties.

Download the full study here: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Portals/0/DEQ/CoastalZoneManagement/FundsInitiativesProjects/task10-01-14.pdf?ver=2017-08-07-151312-817

A study released in July 2017 from George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis and Urban Analytics, Inc., highlighted the positive impact conserved land has on the economies of both Northampton and Accomack Counties in Virginia. The study was commissioned by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Coastal Zone Management Program to inform decision-making at the county and state levels.

The study shows conserved lands on Virginia’s Eastern Shore were associated with more than $230 million in economic activity in the region in 2016. The study looked at three sources of economic activity — organizations involved in land conservation; the aquaculture industry; and tourism focused on outdoor recreation.

Out of the 133,000 acres of protected land on the Eastern Shore, 33,000 acres are owned by the Conservancy and another 13,000 acres are protected by conservation easements held by the Conservancy on privately owned land. Each conservation easement is individually tailored to meet a landowner’s needs by protecting specific conservation values such as water quality, wildlife habitat, and farmland.