Chesapeake Bay load limits alarm growers

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Crop and livestock producers alike in six states are waiting for the fallout from a court decision enforcing a "Total Maximum Daily Load" (TMDL) of nutrients into Chesapeake Bay.

In September, U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency was within its authority to work with six states in setting and enforcing standards on nutrients in rivers draining into Chesapeake, the nation's largest estuary, according to Associated Press.

The bay drains a 64,000-square-mile watershed encompassing parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware. It includes the Susquehanna River, the 16th largest watershed in the United States, which has its source at Cooperstown in upstate New York, 750 kilometres upstream.

The TMDL sets watershed limits of 185.9 million pounds of nitrogen, 12.5 million pounds of phosphorus and 6.45 billion pounds of sediment per year. Seems like a lot, but the limits are 25, 24 and 20 per cent lower than current levels. At press time, the National Corn Growers Association, one farm organization that had opposed the limits, has filed an appeal. "We continue to believe the Chesapeake Bay TMDL goes beyond the scope of Clean Water Act authority and has a negative impact on agricultural production and innovation," says an association press release. "The policy and science behind the Chesapeake Bay TMDL are wrong."

Other opponents included The Fertilizer Institute and national organizations representing pork, chicken, poultry, and egg and turkey producers. Delaware, Maryland and Virginia constitute a major poultry-producing area. BF