Alternative uses must be found for manure produced by livestock in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and animal feeding practices should be changed to make their waste less polluting, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recommends in a report to be released Wednesday.
Agriculture is the largest source of nitrogen and phosphorous in the bay and manure is the single largest contributor, the foundation said.
The report follows one last year that found two-thirds of sewage treatment plants in Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Pennsylvania use outdated methods to remove nitrogen.
Nitrogen and phosphorus are so-called nutrients that can, in excessive amounts, spur the growth of algae and other organisms that can rob oxygen from the water and harm other bay species, creating in some places dead zones that are devoid of oxygen.
While the amount of manure produced over the past 15 to 20 years has not changed substantially, the amount of nutrients it contains has gone up. That's because chicken manure is higher in nutrients than cow manure and poultry production has increased while milk and beef production have decreased, the report said.
Agriculture accounts for 42 percent of the nitrogen and 49 percent of the phosphorous with manure responsible for 18 percent and 25 percent, respectively, the foundation said, citing figurs provided by the Chesapeake Bay Program.
However, the increase in poultry production does have a silver lining of sorts.
The concentration of modern poultry production in large barns, some containing thousands of birds, allows for the collection of their manure. Cattle, meanwhile, often range freely on open pastures, making their manure difficult, if not impossible, to collect, the foundation said.
The foundation also singled out three manure "hot spots" - Lancaster County, Pa., the Delmarva peninsula, led by Sussex County, Del., and Rockingham County, Va.
Lancaster County contains 1.5 percent of the area in the watershed, but produces 12 percent of the nitrogen from manure sources, more than any other county in the bay's drainage area. The county also produces large amounts of cattle and dairy cows, whose manure is often not easily collected.
Rockingham County is the largest turkey producer in the nation and its animal operations have more excess manure than any other county in the nation, the foundation said.
The foundation's recommendations include reducing the amount of nutrient pollutants in manure by changing animal feeding practices. Some poultry growers, for example, have already changed the composition of their feed, reducing phosphorous levels by 16 percent, and could potentially lower phosphorus 50 percent. New research shows lower nutrient levels in dairy feed could cut pollution from cow manure up to 40 percent, and save money, the report said.
The foundation said it was asking Pennsylvania's governor and legislature to establish a $10 million pilot program to improve dairy feed efficiency. Each state in the watershed should also establish a similar program tailored to their needs once the Pennsylvania program is completed.
The foundation said it was also calling on bay watershed states to develop by June, 2005, sufficient alternative uses for excess manure, taking into account technology, funding, marketing and implementation needs.
Maryland should develop a broad-based user fee, paid by consumers and business, that would provide $25 million annually to ensure the availability of alternative uses and help famers address manure runoff issues. The state should also reinstate its Animal Waste Technology Fund and commit $5 million to a competition dedicated to finding the most cost-effective, environmentally friendly alternative uses of manure.
Manure, for example, can be used to produce energy by burning it, or through "bioenergy" plants that typically use methane produced by the manure. Animal waste can also be used in mine reclamation, the report said.
The recommendations also call for requiring safeguards when manure is spread on cropland, including ensuring manure is tilled into the ground to prevent runoff and air release, timing the spreading to phosphorous and nitrogren needs of plants, the use of cover crops, the prevention of direct discharges into surface waters, and the funding of the 2002 federal Farm Bill, which significantly increased funding to reduce water pollution from farms.
Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., an industry trade group, said many of the recommendations are already being implemented by the poultry industry.
For example, all Delmarva chickens are already given feed containing phytase, which helps them better absorb the phosphorous in their feed, and farmers who spread chicken manure are given guidance on how to avoid runoff.
Perdue AgraRecycle also operates a plant in Sussex County, Del., that turns chicken manure into fertilizer pellets, and is expected to increase production from 26,000 tons in fiscal 2004 to 60,000 tons in fiscal 2005, Satterfield said.
Numerous companies have also approached industry officials seeking to use chicken manure to produce energy, but none of the proposals have proven to be economically feasible yet, he said.
Lewis Riley, secretary of Maryland's Department of Agriculture, said in a statement late Tuesday that " ... we continue to encourate the quest for cost-effective technologies to reduce water quality impact. Farmers are willing to adopt scientifically proven technology as long as it is cost effective."
