While we?re on the Amish

ksdk

They are in the NYTimes this week for manure management and Chesapeake Bay pollution. The EPA is doing inspections and finding... too much poop.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/science/earth/09amish.html

SuperGreen

While I'm glad everyone is being held accountable for polluting the bay, it seems dishonest to pick on individual farmers of a certain religion, when I'm sure there are several huge industrial farms that pollute the bay much, much worse.  Oh right, those huge agribusinesses own the government.  I forgot.

ksdk

SuperGreen:

While I'm glad everyone is being held accountable for polluting the bay, it seems dishonest to pick on individual farmers of a certain religion, when I'm sure there are several huge industrial farms that pollute the bay much, much worse.  Oh right, those huge agribusinesses own the government.  I forgot.

Right, the EPA is going out and inspecting their manure management practices while they let CAFOs fill our world with poo. Good point.

daisyterp

Meh- the Amish basically run factory farms for dogs and a lot of them make a lot of money off of it.  Just because they make yummy pies and lovely quilts they don't get any pass from me. 

The Amish are very anti-gov't and can be pretty spiteful/disgusting w/ their reactions to gov't interference.  2 puppy millers shot their 80 dogs rather than take them to the vet after being told he needed to get them vet care for their fleas by an inspector.  The owner of 70 of the dogs said he thought he needed to act immediately.

 

SuperGreen

Daisyterp, I'm not saying that I like the Amish, far from it.  I agree about their animal crueltry practices.  However, there are much worse point sources of water pollution threatening the bay than Lancaster County Amish farms, but the EPA isn't going after them.  They choose to ignore the huge factories and industrial agriculture that threaten our nation's waterways, because those corporations finance political campaigns.

daisyterp

 

I know that a lot of poultry farms on the Eastern Shore of MD & in VA have been under scrutiny since the pfisteria issues from a few years ago.  The EPA has gone after many large poultry farmers in the bay watershed- how their orders to those farms are ultimately enforced I don't know,

I live very close to the Severn River/Chesapeake Bay.  A McMansion developer was just fined $1M (a slap on the wrists for them, but at least it's a start) for mismanaging run-off from their construction site which is at most 1 mile as the crow flies from my house.  Their run off has resulted in a creek in the Severn River watershed filling in a great deal with sediment.  The EPA's action was supported/prompted by the Severn Riverkeeper, who lives down the road from me (who also got the offending developer to help w/ clean-up of the creek it was filling in.)  I know from the riverkeeper that fecal bacteria from dog poop is a problem as well - hence "composting" dog poo in my yard isn't a good idea- so if the EPA going after the Amish helps stop puppy mills from dumping their crap into streams I like that too.

There are a lot of people who are very motivated and mobilized (politically and otherwise) to support the Bay.  I know more could be done- but I think a lot of the stuff that gets hidden/ignored/allowed to continue are not in the Bay watershed.  IMO the biggest threat to the future of the Bay is the natural gas drilling.