Pollution From Farms Comes Under Scrutiny Runoff Of Pesticides, Fertilizers Needs Regulation, Groups Say

Few national rules control the pollution that runs off farms nationwide - pollution suspected in the outbreak of a mysterious fish-killing microbe in Maryland and currently the most widespread source of contamination in America’s rivers.

Only the largest livestock operations, holding thousands of animals in pens, require permits from the Environmental Protection Agency for the storage of manure. And although 16 states require other, smaller farms to adhere to plans on how to manage manure and fertilizers, most states have purely voluntary programs.

“It is really not regulated,” said Scott Faber of the American Rivers conservation group.

Pesticides and soil erosion from farms also pollute waterways, but the nutrients in manure and other fertilizers - mainly nitrogen and phosporous - upset nature’s balance, with sometimes unforeseen results.

On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, officials are trying to determine if poultry farms contributed to an outbreak of pfiesteria piscicida, a bacteria that killed scores of fish in Chesapeake Bay tributaries and may have sickened people who came in contact with the rivers.

A concentration of huge hog farms is the main suspect in a similar appearance of pfiesteria that killed millions of fish two years ago in North Carolina. And some scientists believe dairy herds could have been the source of the parasite cryptosporidia in Wisconsin in 1993 - which caused 100 deaths and made 400,000 sick - and in Georgia in 1987.

But these nutrients also feed undesirable organisms, sometimes making them grow out of control. In Florida’s Everglades, for example, years of phosphorous runoff from nearby sugar cane fields has led to huge stands of cattails that choked out other native grasses.

A recent study by the Ecological Society of America found that human activity including farming has doubled the amount of nitrogen entering natural systems, resulting in areas of extremely low oxygen in estuaries and coastal waters.

This condition has created a 7,200-square-mile and deep “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi River’s mouth. Scientists believe decaying algae that grew dramatically because of farm runoff have robbed the area of oxygen needed for marine life.

EPA’s 1994 survey of state water quality identified farm runoff pollution as the biggest problem in 60 percent of rivers and streams included on its “impaired” list.

Yet for the most part, government’s response to this so-called “non-point” pollution has been to recommend that farmers voluntarily adopt nutrient management plans to prevent too much nitrogen and phosphorous in water. The Agriculture Department provides some technical and financial assistance.

Both agencies note that Congress has given them no authority to do anything more.

Some states also require the plans, but enforcement is difficult and spotty. EPA only requires animal waste discharge permits for operations that confine 6,000 or more animals.

“There’s very little enforcement or checking,” said Robin Marks of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Yet farmers say compliance is growing. Along Maryland’s Pocomoke River watershed, where the first big pfiesteria fish kill occurred, nearly three-quarters of poultry farmers have such plans in place, said Richard Lobb of the National Broiler Council.

“It is more prevalent than it used to be, and it is growing,” Lobb said of the plans. “There’s no point in over-fertilizing your fields.”

Faced with tons of chicken litter, Lobb said farmers trade among themselves and many build large storage sheds to prevent manure from leaching away in rainstorms.

In the Potomac River headwaters area of West Virginia - another big chicken area - Lobb said farmers have set up a hot line to help share litter for use on corn and soybean crops.

Nevertheless, some environmentalists are calling for a rewrite of the Clean Water Act to make nutrient management plans mandatory for all farmers. That would raise the costs of farming, however, and eventually could increase food prices at grocery stores.

Still, environmental groups say society is already paying a cost in human health problems and water-way cleanups. “The question is not whether we pay, but how we pay,” said Faber of American Rivers.