Berlin, Md.-Attorneys for Perdue Farms and a Berlin contract grower for Perdue have asked a federal judge to dismiss a Clean Water Act suit filed March 1 in Baltimore by Waterkeepers Alliance and Assateague Coastkeeper claiming manure runoff is contaminating Chesapeake Bay. The two groups filed suit after several years of investigating the Maryland poultry industry for its part in the ongoing decline in health of the state’s local waters. The suit claims that recent water sampling from ditches that ran past an extensive, uncovered manure pile on the property shows high levels of toxic pollutants, including fecal coliform, phosphorus, and nitrogen. Attorneys for the defendants responded that the pile is not mentioned in the suit, only the water samples taken downstream from the farm, but the environmentalists remain undeterred. “If you want to find out why the Chesapeake watershed is so polluted, then you don’t need to look any further than this facility and others like it around the Eastern Shore,” insisted Liane Curtis, Waterkeepers Alliance staff attorney.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain