MD Nutrient Management Plans to Become Public Documents

For Immediate Release: March 3, 2009

Contact:

Scott Edwards, Legal Director, Waterkeeper Alliance, 914-674-0622 X 13 or sedwards@waterkeeper.org;

Jane F. Barrett, Director, University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic, 410-706-8074; Michele Merkel, Chesapeake Regional Coordinator, Waterkeeper Alliance at 202-257-0877 or mmerkel@waterkeeper.org

MD Nutrient Management Plans

To Become Public Documents

Annapolis, MD – In an important step towards bringing transparency to industrial agriculture practices in Maryland, a Circuit Court for AnneArundelCounty ruled that Maryland Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs) are public documents, and therefore should be made available for review upon request.

“Providing access to Nutrient Management Plans is the first step in empowering citizens to protect themselves, their communities and their waterways,” said Kathy Phillips, Assateague COASTKEEPER.

The court ruled on a request by the Maryland Farm Bureau that NMPs be kept confidential.  This request followed a challenge by Waterkeeper Alliance and eight of its Maryland members – Assateaugue Coastkeeper, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Patuxent Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper, Severn Riverkeeper, South Riverkeeper, and West/Rhode Riverkeeper – represented by the University of Maryland Law Clinic, charging the state with withholding documents that should be public under federal law.

Nutrient Management Plans are prepared by farmers across the state to detail how much waste is produced, and how that waste is managed – including the billion pounds of poultry manure produced in the state each year.  Agricultural waste runoff is the primary source of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. 

The effort by state lawmakers to protect Maryland’s poultry industry continues, however.  A bill before Maryland’s Legislature (SB623; HB1248) proposes to destroy these public documents after three years in order to keep them out of the hands of the public.

“Maryland is finally catching up with other states across the country that have for years given citizens the tools they need to help enforce our country’s environmental laws through citizen actions,” Michele Merkel, Chesapeake Regional Coordinator for Waterkeeper Alliance.  “State lawmakers must not cave to the demands of their friends in the poultry industry who seek to continue operating with impunity and out of view of the public.”

The federal Clean Water Act requires NMPs to be filed as part of a public permit at livestock facilities over a certain size.  Maryland is currently undergoing the process of issuing these pollution permits.

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Waterkeeper Alliance connects and strengthens 182 local Waterkeeper programs worldwide – Riverkeeper, Baykeeper, Coastkeeper and other Waterkeeper organizations that patrol and protect their waterway, guaranteeing everyone’s right to clean water. Waterkeeper Alliance’s Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign fights pollution from industrial livestock production around the country.  For more information visit: http://www.waterkeeper.org/.