As older chicken houses on the Eastern Shore are being replaced with much larger operations, neighbors and environmental groups have a lot of questions about air and water pollution.
Now, a new data tool will give the public a little more information about how the industrial byproduct - poultry manure – is being used.
Driving Route 13 on the Eastern Shore you'll pass the huge processing plants of Tyson, Perdue and Mountaire and massive chicken houses that supply the birds. It's an important industry to the economy. But people are concerned that manure spread on local farm fields may be polluting the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.
So, for the last four years a Delmarva collaborative representing science, environment, government and industry have been trying to find a way for industry to coexist with residents through transparency. Kurt Fuchs is an industry representative who chairs the team. "Honestly and up front we know it's not going to answer all of their questions, but at the same time it provides a starting point and if there is a question that they have, there's a group they can go to with confident that they're going to get unbiased and scientific-based responses from."
The tool combines 30 years of EPA and industry data into graphs, interactive maps and information. Not included are some of the bigger questions like how much phosphorous is in the soil and concerns about ammonia in the air. The collaborative also didn't include people who live near the chicken houses.
Members agreed they had more work ahead of them in trying figure out just how much manure is on Delmarva and how much is going out.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
