The "Scary Headline Needs To Be Taken Seriously" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The headline in the morning Lancaster, PA newspaper read "Tradition At Stake".  Could have meant just about anything since the city of Lancaster is one of the oldest inland towns in the United States.  But, as I read the story I knew what was being suggested in the article was going to be very, very hard to pull off.  Story said that there had been a State study that had explored moving dairy and livestock farming to Western Pennsylvania.  

Beautiful Lancaster County farmland

Yeah, right!  Their reasoning was that it would relieve environ- mental stresses mounting in Lancaster County and central Pennsylvania.  Seems that the Chesapeake Bay is suffering from all the manure that is entering the bay due to runoff from all the farms that line the tributaries that empty into the Susquehanna River.  It is killing the Bay!  Seems that the western counties of Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland have ample room for livestock farms and to spread manure safely.  Only problem at present is the lack of agricultural services and poor roads.  Wonder if they realize that another problem might be the fact that Lancaster County is one of the biggest hubs of Amish farms and these are the farms that they might want to move west.  

Many Lancaster County farms are dairy farms

But, it looks as if the federal government may set tougher regulations on water quality limits for the Chesapeake Bay which may lead to a downsizing of the livestock industry in the Susquehanna watershed.  The EPA might be aiming more restrictive federal regulations at farmers and the three listed counties are in the Ohio River watershed and have not been targeted for nutrient reductions.  But, if dairy and livestock farms are moved to western Pennsylvania and pollution begins to affect the Ohio River, don't they think that will create the same problem as we have now in the Susquehanna watershed?  The state Department of Environmental Protection recently made a presentation to farmers in Lancaster County about the controls they will establish over stream-cleanup measures.  

Another beautiful Lancaster County farm

They may make Lancaster County farmers get federal discharge permits and local communities, including the city of Lancaster, may have to further rein in storm-water runoff.  More regulations will create a bigger hardship for farmers that struggle with water cleanup.  If goals aren't met, the next step would be to close down some of the livestock farms and move them to western Pennsylvania.  But, DEP believes that it is possible to have well-managed, profitable farms as well as clean local waters within the Susquehanna river watershed.  Let's hope that someone can give support to all those in need in Lancaster County.  The last thing we want is to have all our Amish neighbors have to move across the state.  Certainly, the newspaper headline had to scare some of them into realizing they need to do something to correct the pollution problem.  And, the Amish do read the paper!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.