Dr. Shoemaker has counted some 60 similarly afflicted patients since that summer day. All were exposed to Chesapeake Bay waterways and to a mysterious microbe called Pfiesteria piscicida. Scientists say it feeds off the heavy load of nutrients contained in waste runoff. Although no permanent damage has been reported by people infected with the organism, the area's fish have not been so lucky. But what began a year ago as the scenario for an apocalyptic disaster movie has since shifted into the realm of political theater.
Scientists believe the outbreak originated from chicken manure runoff from rain-soaked farmlands.
Now conservationists, the Senate Agriculture Committee, the EPA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are embroiled in a dispute over who should police the handling of farm waste. The bill calls on the EPA and USDA to work together to come up with regulations for handling waste. Although the EPA has traditionally enforced pollution regulations, Andy Fish, deputy chief counsel for the Democratic staff of the committee, says Harkin's bill would give the USDA a new enforcement role, making it responsible for policing how manure is handled. But the USDA's involvement troubles conservationists like Mike Hirshfield of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Richard Lobb, communications director for the National Broiler Council, an industry association representing 95 percent of the poultry producers in America, argues that the existence of chicken farms near some of the pollution proves nothing.