Every poultry farmer should be so lucky. But they're not. Three-quarters of the 350 farmers in the Potomac Valley don't have the right plans or equipment to dispose of poultry manure, federal officials estimate. Half don't use recommended methods to get rid of dead birds, officials say. As a result, poultry manure has polluted the Potomac River headwaters streams so much that a national environmental group named the Potomac the seventh most endangered river in North America.
Simple answers are hard to find.
In tough economic times, people hesitate to question any kind of development. In rural areas, folks often object to anyone telling them what to do with their land. Local officials in and around Hardy County didn't plan well for the tripling of the area's poultry production over the last decade. State government wasn't much help. And neither was WLR Foods, the corporation that drove the poultry explosion.