TITLE: Runoff curb by 2002 sought; Governor's study on controlling Pfiesteria sets goals for farmers; Plan isn't mandatory, but compliance is expected
BYLINE: Michael Dresser
CREDIT: SUN STAFF
EST. PAGES: 2
DATE: 11/01/97
DOCID: BSUN541766
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun; BSUN
EDITION: FINAL; SECTION: NEWS; PAGE: 1A
(Copyright 1997 @ The Baltimore Sun Company)
The governor's commission on Pfiesteria approved ambitious
goals for controlling farm pollution as it declared yesterday
that every Maryland farmer should carry out a plan to control
runoff by 2002.
The action on the single most controversial matter before
the panel was seen as a preliminary victory for environmentalists
and a setback for farmers -- particularly the Eastern Shore's
mammoth chicken industry.
The recommendation passed by a 6-2 vote, the same margin
by which the commission approved its final report and sent it
to Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
The panel, chaired by former Gov. Harry R. Hughes, said each
farmer in Maryland should have a nutrient management plan in place
by 2000 and have it "fully and demonstrably implemented"
two years later.
Nowhere in the language is the term "mandatory,"
but members agreed the panel's implicit message to farmers was:
Get with the plan. Farmers, said Hughes, have "no reason
to drag their feet."
But members also emphasized that the state must give farmers
the tools to do the job and to insulate them from economic harm.
An amendment to the draft made the target dates contingent on
the state providing sufficient resources to meet the goals.
Glendening named the Blue-Ribbon Citizens Pfiesteria Action Commission
Sept. 15 to chart a course of action for Maryland to deal with
outbreaks of toxic microbes in its waters.
The outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida and related organisms, which
have been linked to human ailments, prompted the closing of three
Eastern Shore waterways this summer. The last one, the Chicamacomico
River in Dorchester County, reopened yesterday.
The report is expected to form the basis for the administration's
legislative package dealing with the Pfiesteria issue. Some parts
can be accomplished by executive action, but the most controversial
proposals would require the approval of the General Assembly --
where heavy opposition is likely.
The commission devoted much of its report to recommendations on
how to control the runoff into the bay of nutrients, especially
the phosphorus found in chicken manure produced by the state's
giant chicken industry.
Panel members focused on agriculture after scientists told them
evidence suggests that nutrient pollution can help foster the
conditions that make Pfiesteria turn toxic in the presence of
fish.
Most of the 38-page report generated little disagreement. A broad
series of recommendations for research andgovernment spending
on developing new anti-pollution technologies were adopted unanimously.
But the one sentence setting the target date was enough to persuade
Del. Ron Guns, chairman of the House Environmental Matters Committee,
and Rick Nelson, president of the Somerset County Farm Bureau
and a chicken grower, to oppose the entire report.
Neither disputed the need to bring farmers under nutrient management
plans, but both contended that the target dates were unreasonable.
"It needs more time. There's a lot of promises out there
we're not in control of delivering," said Guns, a Cecil County
Democrat whose proposal to extend the implementation deadline
to 2010 lost on a 6-2 vote.
Dr. Alfred Sommer, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene
and Public Health, said the commission "will be laughed off
the face of the earth" if it suggested delaying action until
then.
The panel discarded an earlier suggestion by Sommer of staggered
goals that would have all lower Eastern Shore farms adopt plans
by 2000 and the rest of the state two years later. But the final
draft says that if resources run short, the state should focus
its early efforts of its "most severely nutrient-impaired"
watersheds -- many of which are in the three Lower Shore counties.
Three members of the 11-member commission were absent at
the final meeting.
Opponents interpreted the language on goals as a call for
a mandate, with Guns predicting it would turn up in legislation
as a "drop-dead date" for farmers.
Figures supplied by the Maryland Department of Agriculture indicated
that about three-quarters of the farmers in the Pfiesteria-affected
parts of the state have agreed to voluntary nutrient management
plans, but a department survey raised doubts about how many plans
are fully implemented.
According to the Maryland Department of Agriculture, there
are now between 900,000 and 1 million acres in nutrient plans.
Democratic Sen. Brian E. Frosh of Montgomery County said that
means the voluntary program put in place in 1989 has failed to
meet its goal of covering 1.3 million of the state's 1.7 million
acres of farmland by now.
Pub Date: 11/01/97