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New Chesapeake Bay rules could impact Midwest

The EPA last week announced a new federal clean-up strategy for the Chesapeake Bay, which the agency says includes “rigorous regulations to restore clean water.”  That includes expanded regulation of CAFOs—concentrated animal feeding operations—that are located in the Bay’s watershed. 

The chairman of the National Pork Producers Council environment committee, Randy Spronk of Edgerton, Minnesota, says those new regulations could eventually impact Midwestern farmers.

“We all know it’s going to have an impact in the Mississippi or the Missouri River watershed,” says Spronk, “so I think as producers we want to be very mindful of what’s going on in the Chesapeake Bay and what they’re doing to meet the standards.”

According to a feedstuffs.com report, the new federal strategy for the Chesapeake Bay stems from agreements made to settle a lawsuit that charged EPA had failed to protect the Bay’s water under the Clean Water Act.  Among those affected most by the new rules will be chicken producers for Perdue Company, the nation’s third largest poultry producer.  Many of them are located on the Delmarva  Peninsula—which borders the Chesapeake Bay’s eastern shore.

AUDIO: Randy Spronk (2 min MP3)