Effective regulations for the better management of poultry wastes are necessary.

The producer of the waste pollution is morally responsible for that pollution. 

The law needs to reinforce that moral responsibility with the certainty of punishment if the waste is released into our environment.  

 

The excuse that it is too expensive to properly deal with the waste in a way that does not cause pollution is not valid, because the cost is already being paid by the downstream users.

 

When the waste pollution is allowed to contaminate our common waters, the producer is avoiding a cost that is his responsibility. He is passing the cost on to those downstream from him. There is a cost to be paid, but it is paid by the fisherman and recreation user and the riverside properties and water utilities and all those who use that water, down to the Chesapeake Bay, where the waterman find less life in the polluted water.

 

The state of Virginia (the tax payers) also pays when millions of dollars are spent in an effort to clean up the bay; while the upstream polluter adds to the problem

 

All downstream are paying for the irresponsibility of the polluter. 

 

There are several methods that can be used to deal with the waste that do not pollute our environment. Many are already in use in several places in this country and in other countries as well. All have up-front costs, but result in the waste becoming a useful resource instead of a polluting problem.  

 

 

Dennis Dineen