Special Letter to the Cape Charles Mirror by Ken Dufty
I appreciate this opportunity to add to the comments of Perdue’s Steve Levitsky regarding finding common ground regarding the poultry expansion on the Delmarva Peninsula, and especially on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. [December 13,Eastern Shore Post]. As your readers know, we here in Northampton County are just surfacing from a 30 month fight to protect our rural quality of life and pristine natural resources, so this expansion in our sister county to the north does arch an eyebrow more than a bit.
Last week, a new group formed to explore manure-to-energy solutions to process the waste generated by the poultry industry was introduced to the lower Shore by Virginia’s Eastern Shorekeeper during a public symposium in Onancock.
That raised the other eyebrow, for sure. Here is why most us down here feel that Northampton County should not be the solution for the waste product generated by these mega-farms to our north…although remaining clearly cognizant and supportive of the fact that the poultry industry is a very important part of our regional economy. We know, for instance, that Accomack County ranks #2 in the Commonwealth for poultry meat production..even BEFORE the 330 house build-out now being considered and/or constructed. But the sobering and limiting factor here is that our county has a land mass of 795 square miles, with only 212of that being “dry land”. Indeed 74.3% of our county’s land is water. And our Columbia Aquifer (which because of high nutrients, iron, and pollutants is not advised to be used as a drinking water source now) is unconfined, and just below the surface of our permeable soils. Our narrow little sandbar has 38 drainage pathways (streams, rivers, estuaries) which drain laterally east to west. Indeed, after a groundwater committee meeting last year, a retired hydrogeologist made the statement that “if one spat on the ground in Northampton County, his or her DNA would be found eventually either in the Bay, the Seaside marshes, or flowing out of your tap.”
In short, we have to be incredibly careful regarding what we till into or spill onto our land..especially if that is going to be ash from the incineration of poultry manure, a product that has been deemed a hazardous waste by European researchers and scientists.
Finally, we have an incredibly limited drinking water supply called the Yorktown/Eastover aquifer. Out of 46 inches of rain we get in Northampton County each year, less than ½ inch of that recharges our potable water reserves. The University of Georgia estimates that an average broiler flock can use 100,000 gallons of water, and a mega-house can produce 5-6 flocks/year. Multiply that by the many hundreds of mega-houses existing or planned in our sister county, which shares the same sole-source aquifer, and our “line in the sand” approach to having our county solve the “regional” poultry problems perched precariously on the cusp of our environmental horizon seems well justified.
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Levitsky that we should work together to address these issues. I think we should work together to enact a moratorium on more industrial poultry farms in Accomack County until we find out what to do with the thousands of tons of high-nutrient waste that will be coming out the back end of these factories ..asking mutually “when is enough enough?”
And we should work together to ensure that the integrators take more responsibility for this waste rather than saddling the growers (and now the general public) with finding solutions for this industrially-generated waste. Finally,we need to find a workable, environmentally-sustainable way to manage poultry manure without cramming it into acirculating fluidised bed incinerator and then spreading toxic waste ash on our valuable farmland.
About the Author
I have been involved in the field of what is called “environmental health” since 1966, when I went to work for the New York State Department of Health as a technician, first in the water pollution control section, and then, in air pollution control, in both capacities being engaged in field studies.
Upon my return from Viet Nam in 1970, I returned to my technician duties, now with the newly created New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, again being involved in field studies related to pollution abatement and control.
In 1974, I was sponsored by the NYSDEC to obtain a federal EPA fellowship that enabled me to gain a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering at a nationally-known polytechnic institute in this area to the north of you where I am.
At this time, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) had been in place since 1970, and one of my graduate courses in Environmental Engineering was a study of NEPA and NEPA “compliance.”
We were taught in that class by a person who worked at the time for NYSDEC in supposed environmental review compliance, and the subject of the course was how to evade proper environmental review with the aid and assistance of compliant regulatory agencies such as the NYSDEC, while blowing smoke up the backsides of the gullible public with empty rhetoric and pages upon pages of meaningless numbers in “engineering reports” that the general public would have no way of debunking or refuting, which would then require them to have to hire expensive experts to refute the bull****, something most rural residents have no way of doing, because of the cost.
That course served to make me a wiser man, and subsequently, I was able to use all the tricks to evade the law that were taught to us in that course to debunk those reports myself, which I did several times free of charge as a licensed engineer for citizen groups who were being snowed under by bogus engineering reports that were not worth the paper they were printed on.
Despite my efforts, of course, that system lives on in New York state, while I have been swept by the wayside by the state of New York itself, which can engage in acts of retaliation against people like myself with impunity, because the state has what is called “sovereign immunity.”
Sovereign immunity allows a state to turn its back on polluters and pollution, while its citizens are poisoned, their water quality destroyed, their air quality degraded, and there is little or nothing the citizens can do about it.
Which brings us to Accomack County, Virginia and the chicken industry, and the water quantity and quality of Cape Charles, itself.
It sounds very much like up here in corrupt New York state, where the state itself creates what are known as “black air zones,” where industry and business are given free rein to literally destroy the environment in pursuit of profits, and citizens be damned.
What has happened to the Virginia Environmental Act compliance in Accomack County?
Does it even exist?
For an example of environmental quality review in the Commonwealth of Virginia, click on the link for Chesterfield County in Virginia, south of Richmond, which identifies itself on-line as “one of the best places in America to live, work, play and raise a family:” http://www.chesterfield.gov/content2.aspx?id=15463
Environmental Division – What is EMS?
Fact Sheet
Welcome to this introduction to Environmental Management Systems (EMS).
This handout will give you a brief overview of what an EMS is, its benefits, and how it fits in with Chesterfield County’s strategic goals.
This information will also help guide you in your environmental responsibilities while complying with Federal, State and Local regulations.
What is an EMS?
An Environmental Management System, or EMS, is a set of management procedures, environmental documents, and other tools that allow the county to:
◦Maintain regulatory compliance
◦Address deviations from desired outcomes
◦Control and reduce environmental impacts of its services and activities
◦Operate with greater efficiency
What are the benefits of an EMS?
An EMS provides tools to help the county improve environmental management across the entire organization.
The following are specific benefits of EMS implementation:
◦Reduced risk and greater compliance assurance
◦Increased operational efficiency and consistency
◦Improved communications
◦Positive relations with regulators and the public
◦Cost savings
Why does the county have an EMS?
In May 2002, the Chesterfield County Leadership made a formal decision to establish a countywide EMS.
The EMS will provide the framework for the county to meet regulatory requirements, control and reduce the impacts of its services, and address the environmental challenges facing local governments.
What is the county’s Environmental Management Policy?
The Environmental Management Policy is the foundation of the county’s EMS and contains the following three key commitments:
◦Compliance with Environmental Laws
◦Dedication to Pollution Prevention
◦Commitment to Continual Improvement
end quotes
So, clearly, Virginia does have in place a system on the county level to do as Chesterfield County says – dedication to pollution prevention, but that, of course, is in a county which is one of the best places in America to live, work, play and raise a family.
Accomack County, on the other hand, is one of the best places in America to raise plenty of chickens.
So it would stand to reason, then, wouldn’t it, that Accomack County would have a whole different perspective on pollution control than does Chesterfield County.
If a sole source aquifer has to be written off to guarantee profits for the poultry industry, then so be it.
Afterall, as everyone knows, regulations drive industry and business away to corrupt states like New York, so to compete, counties like Accomack have to do away with environmental regulations themselves just to keep the playing field level for the chicken industry.
And that, people, is the way it goes in America today, where it is a race to the bottom with respect to protection of the environment.
When your children wonder what the funny taste in the water is, and what is that stink in the air, tell them it is their future.