It's Day 6 of O'Misery in O'Maryland, and O'Guvnah does not disappoint. The Baltimore Examiner is reporting that O'Guvnah is proposing tough new standards for poultry farms to help cure the ills of the Bay.
I wonder what Rick Pollitt and Barrie Tilghman think of this one?
The poultry industry is easy pickings. After all, who cares what happens to "Big Chicken", right?
It might be better to ask O'Guvnah what he is doing to fix the problems with Baltimore City's sewer system, which just a few weeks ago had another 40,000 gallon spill. Oh yes, the spill amounts are back to 2001 levels because of the draught-- but any spill should be considered bad.
Or, it might be good to ask O'Guvnah what he is doing about the state of Pennsylvania, over half of which uses the Chesapeake Bay for its own personal septic system.
Or, how about Washington, DC? It took via the Potomac, pitches in on the whole "Bay as Septic System" program.
And while we are on the discussion of Septic Systems, what happened to all that money from the "flush tax" that was going to help rebuild municipal sewer systems?
And what about the heavy industry in and around Baltimore City. Are we to assume that those chemical plans and oil storage facilities haven't had a hand in this? Ever wonder why the old Exxon distribution facility east of Canton has never been redeveloped? (Hint: want to see soil burn?)
And if we are going to pick on agriculture, let's ask about all the overfishing in the Bay -- not recreational, mind you, but commercial oystering?
And let's not forget O'Guvnah's favorite friends -- the developers illegally chewing up gobs of buffer land on the Eastern Shore to generate the cash for his statewide (and nationa?) campaigns?
In the article, a Perdue spokesman claims the new regulations aren't that onerous. I guess not, since they will get to finance any improvements required -- thereby getting a vig -- and this tie their poultry farmers even tighter, preventing them from jumping ship. And if a farmer loses thirty or forty acres here and there providing a 25-foot buffer strip along "waterways" (I assume that includes drainage ditches the Eastern Shore is known for), how does that hurt Perdue? And its not like Jim Perdue has to arrange his schedule to be available for the inspections.
Seems like a pretty swell deal for Perdue.
Of course, there will probably be some reimbursement program for farmers to use to help get nutrient management facilities (read: manure pits) built. Yup, because they work so well for other farmers. Try to get a contractor to come out and work who is willing to get paid on the county's schedule (such programs are actually run by the counties).
And how long will it be before we start to see improvement in the Bay? The EPA freaks and green weanies claim that "we have known for a long time that poultry is a problem", but that is a shade off from the truth. We THINK we know, but there has NEVER been a comprehensive study done on the nutrient sources in the Bay. For all we know, as full of shit as most Baltimore politicians are, they could be the sole source.
It seems to me there is a better approach, rather than increasing O'Misery in O'Maryland. First, let's do a real study -- comprehensive -- that identifies the sources and types of nutrient pollution. Second, let's incentivize farmers to improve their nutrient management programs through property taxes and estate taxes. Third, let's turn all those biotech scientists at UMBC loose on the problem and see if they can find a way to attack the nutrients through a biological approach. We have microbes that eat oil, microbes that eat pesticides, microbes that eat hazardous waste. Certainly we engineer one of those little buggers to eat nutrients-- or stuff like Pfisteria. Let's up the anty, too. Let's offer $100 million to the first scientist to find one.
Creating another set of regulations and permits, which will do no more than guarantee employment to another oversized state bureacracy, based on nothing more than unscientific guesswork will be a stupid and silly exercise in the futility of government.And an example of just how much chickenshit is involved in politics.