WATCHING OVER

At a Seneca Township meeting in 2004 where concerns were addressed about large agricultural operations, one farmer offered a simple solution to the illegal discharge of manure into area streams: change the law.

If laws no longer prohibited the discharge of waste into waterways, then farmers would no longer be placed in a negative light when it happens.

The law hasn’t changed and it’s not likely to any time soon, but some have another way to address the issue. At the Michigan Farm Bureau’s annual meeting last week, one of the primary policy issues called for a shift in environmental authority from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA).

The Farm Bureau says that farmers find the DEQ “long on regulation but short on economic considerations.”  Furthermore, they aren’t pleased that large livestock operations must face a permitting system rather than operate freely without state-imposed guidelines.

The Farm Bureau is also opposed to a ruling that makes farmers’ Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans—a plan governing the application of manure onto fields—available for public inspection. This, says the Farm Bureau, will open the door to frivolous lawsuits and offer information to terrorists bent on attacking the nation’s food supply.

It’s easy to understand the frustration that some farmers experience with the DEQ. Some have had multiple visits from the agency due to the discharge of manure and silage leachate into streams. However, to turn the regulatory process over to the Michigan Department of Agriculture isn’t the right direction to take. An agriculture-friendly agency shouldn’t be put in charge of oversight for farms.

When liquid manure was applied to area fields on top of snow in late November—a practice that goes against the state’s Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices—would the MDA have cited the farm owners when subsequent rainfall washed large quantities of manure into streams? Water samples tested in a lab found E. coli bacteria levels too numerous to count.

As farms grow larger and larger—and the quantity of manure also multiplies—this hardly seems like the right time to back off from enforcement of water quality violations.

Spraying liquefied manure on snow before a rain seems like a desperate measure to deal with waste rather than a careful application of nutrients into the soil. Independent supervision of these practices is needed.