In the fall of 1992, George Constanz, an ecologist then working for the nonprofit Pine Cabin Run Ecological Laboratory in Hampshire County, questioned the lack of planning of poultry industry growth. Further, the industry is expanding in the Cacapon River basin because it is being limited elsewhere and because it is being courted by state officials. Unregulated, this process will degrade the entire Lost River and the upper halves of the North and Cacapon Rivers. Otherwise, growth in the broiler industry could reduce recreation and tourism and the quality of life in the state. As an example of a conflict, stimulating the growth of animal confinement operations in the Potomac Highlands may lead to increased water pollution, damage to trout fisheries in Seneca Creek and branches of the Potomac, and limit the growth of recreation and tourism in that area.
Environmentalists doubt it.
If best management practices aren't required, they say, some poultry farmers who don't comply will get a competitive advantage. As the result of a lawsuit filed by various environmental groups, the state DEP will over the next few years have to issue tougher pollution restrictions for streams which don't currently meet state standards. Under settlement of the lawsuit approved in July, DEP will first attack pollution problems in the South Branch of the Potomac River. Six streams there are polluted with excessive amounts of fecal coliform bacteria, in large part because of poultry farm runoff, studies and court records show. Later this month, DEP will publish a report that outlines what kinds of pollution reductions are needed to clean up those streams.