Judge Denies Perdue's Motion To Dismiss Clean Water Act Case

Baltimore, MD - July 21, 2010 – A federal court today denied a motion by poultry giant Perdue to dismiss a case brought against it for polluting the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The claims against the Maryland-headquartered company, which are based on the Clean Water Act, were brought by a local environmental organization, the Assateague Coastkeeper, and Waterkeeper Alliance, an international coalition of grassroots water activists. In the fall of 2009, Coastkeeper and Waterkeeper staff discovered alarming amounts of several pollutants, including e. coli and fecal coliform, pouring from a Perdue-contract factory farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland into local waterways that fed into the Pocomoke River and, ultimately, the highly polluted Chesapeake Bay. The charges against Perdue’s factory farm were filed in January 2010. The Court’s decision means that the case will continue to its next phase of litigation.

Waterkeeper Alliance, Assateague Coastkeeper and other Chesapeake Waterkeeper programs have been working together to bring transparency, accountability and responsibility to the chicken industry in Maryland. Two years ago the groups celebrated a state-court decision that declared, for the first time that factory farm nutrient management plans were public documents. Prior to Waterkeeper’s legal challenge, the state’s Department of Agriculture held that these important waste-disposal plans were confidential “business records” not subject to public scrutiny as they are in most other states.

Waterkeeper’s latest court action alleges that the big poultry integrators are legally responsible for the billions of pounds of chicken waste produced by their contract growers each year.

“Up until now, Perdue has found a way to engage in a very intensive industrial process and, at the end of their very profitable day, get up and walk away from their own industrial waste stream – chicken manure,” said Scott Edwards, Waterkeeper Alliance’s Director of Advocacy. “No other industry in this country has figured out how to do that.” Edwards pointed out that local farmers working as contract growers for Perdue and the other poultry giants have been irresponsibly burdened with the waste that is devastating the Bay.

Waste from these facilities is finding its way into local waterways in massive amounts. “It’s no coincidence that the Bay watershed is being decimated by the very same pollutants that are streaming uncontrolled off these chicken factory farms,” said Liane Curtis, one of the Waterkeeper attorneys representing the plaintiffs. “With so much attention focused on the Bay, it time for people to recognize the role that uncontrolled animal waste runoff is playing in the continued downward spiral of the Bay.”

The court firmly rejected all arguments made by Perdue related to why it should not be held liable under the Clean Water Act for illegal discharges from the Hudson Farm. “We’re very eager to see this case move forward in the coming months,” said Jane Barrett, Director of the Maryland School of Law Environmental Clinic, which is co-counsel on the case. “We are confident that discovery will show just how much this industry controls the day-to-day operations of the so-called contract growers.”

“This is an issue that significantly affects my watershed,” said Kathy Phillips, the Assateague Coastkeeper. “I am excited to see the case move forward.”