RIDGELY — When walking around his Ridgely residence and the Tuckahoe State Park, Al Martinez holds grave worries about the health of his neighbors and the environment.
As president of the Tuckahoe Equestrian Center, he’s mindful of the cleanliness of riding trails throughout the park, along with the park’s bodies of water. Martinez’s concerns for the environment led him to join other Caroline County residents who publicly spoke out regarding tanks storing “food processing residuals.”
He has taken notice of the large companies outside of the state that often bring the materials to Maryland. It’s a trend he doesn’t want to see harm the park or Adkins Arboretum, a 400-acre native garden across from his house.
“Big name companies with big pocketbooks are quietly paying other agents to get this stuff into our state,” Martinez said. “We kind of know that, even though it’s not said so. We know that Big Brother with big money is behind all this.”
Dissolved air flotation, a method for processing wastewater from food processing plants, leaves behind a sludge-like byproduct, or DAF residuals. State legislation, which referred to the material as “food processing residuals,” went into effect July 1. It requires a permit to use, store or haul the material.
While the state’s actions will bring some relief, county leaders still are grappling with mitigating the health and environmental drawbacks of the materials. Those drawbacks include increased flies and pungent odors for neighbors, along with the potential for polluted waterways.
On the Eastern Shore, much of the material generated from DAF comes from poultry processing plants, though some comes from industrial and wastewater treatment sludge. In Maryland, it is an approved soil amendment or fertilizer.
According to a 2023 study by the University of Maryland, more than half of the industrial sludge land-applied in Maryland in recent years came from other states.
Since December, Caroline County leaders have held packed public hearings and extended moratoriums on DAF storage tanks. For county commissioners, the main hurdle has been cracking down on a few “bad actors” that store the residuals irresponsibly.
Martinez and his wife, Stacy Frank, each commented at a January hearing on DAF residuals in Caroline County.
“The sludge created by this process emits the foulest, nauseating, noxious stench you have ever smelled,” Frank wrote to county commissioners.
The turnout for that January meeting was more than significant — it was historically high, with nearly 70 pieces of spoken and written testimony. It caught the attention of state legislators, who raised the issue during this year’s General Assembly.
THE STATE BILL
House Bill 991 and its paired Senate Bill 1074 were signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore on May 9. The legislation doesn’t prohibit the usage of food processing residuals by farmers, but it requires a permit to store, use or haul the food processing residuals.
The bills introduce increased penalties for those who willfully violate Maryland’s nutrient management regulations and allow the state to inspect any site where residuals are used.
While HB991 was introduced and sponsored by delegates on the western shore, Del. Jeff Ghrist (R-Kent, Queen Anne’s, Cecil, Caroline) also introduced DAF-related legislation in February.
His legislation aimed to give local jurisdictions the authority to regulate storage of DAF residuals. Ghrist eventually withdrew his legislation, stating in a letter to Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) that HB991 would “give the necessary control to local governing bodies.”
The now-signed bill gives responsibility for the permitting program to the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
The MDA program is expected to be self-sufficient by collecting fees to support the program’s funds.
Holly Porter, executive director of the Delmarva Chicken Association, said DCA supported the final version of the bill and was “pleased to see” the permitting process fall under MDA’s purview.
“We wanted to make sure that all of our farmers had the ability to utilize food processing residuals because it is a great source of nutrients,” Porter said. “… It’s an organic material, and it’s really one of the best forms of recycling you can do. And it lowers input costs for our grain farmers, which is very important in today’s economy.”
The exact extent of the benefits of land-applying DAF residuals isn’t always agreed upon between industry and environmental experts.
Matt Pluta, the Choptank riverkeeper at ShoreRivers, said that DAF could have “such little available nutrients for the crops,” causing it to often be applied in large quantities at once.
“Because this material is often applied in large quantities, we have concerns over the potential of runoff,” Pluta said, adding that the waters on the Shore are already polluted due to other agricultural forms of runoff.
Alan Girard, Maryland advocacy director at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, emphasized the importance that the state caught up to neighboring Virginia and Delaware in regulating the residuals. Companies from those areas had been trucking the product to a less-restricted state like Maryland.
“It’s really sort of created a dumping ground for the material in Maryland (that is) generated elsewhere,” Girard said.
PERMIT PROCESS
Hans Schmidt, assistant secretary of resource conservation at the Department of Agriculture, said the department worked with sponsors of the bill, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Shore Rivers and more groups during the legislative process. The department drafted regulations and presented them to MDA’s Nutrient Management Advisory Committee.
Girard said “the department deserves a lot of credit” for its work on drafting regulations to satisfy the bill, which officially took effect July 1.
“The department will know ahead of time when and where these products are going to be applied,” Schmidt said. “… We have authority now to go on the farms where these products (are) without prior approval from the landowner.”
Since the time between the bill passing and the July 1 effective date was limited, Schmidt clarified that the final permit regulations are not active. Instead, the department finalized a set of emergency regulations that was sent to a state legislative committee.
The emergency regulations, posted on MDA’s website, will be effective once approved by that administrative, executive and legislative review joint committee. Those regulations will last for six months, during which MDA will submit proposed final regulations, Schmidt said.
“Hopefully by Jan. 1, the proposed regulations will be approved,” he added.
Porter said the Delaware Chicken Association offered suggestions to the first draft of regulations, adding that the group is “very much engaged” in conversation with MDA.
In a recent Caroline County Commissioners meeting on July 9, Porter said she believes the state regulations aim to ensure “tracking, reporting and accountability.” However, she added that the emergency regulations — which are currently being reviewed by the joint committee — “still (have) some things we’re a little concerned on.”
“It’s more restrictive than I’m sure the industry likes,” Schmidt said. “But I think it still meets the intent as far as limiting the number of applications that these products can be applied to the land.”
‘BAD ACTORS’
While not opposed to the usage of food processing residuals, the Caroline County commissioners have taken significant steps in the past year to aleve concerns from residents like Martinez and Frank. Many of the complaints relate to odors and flies.
County resident Russ Yates owns Holiday Park Campground near Greensboro and has expressed concerns during public hearings about the prospect of using the structures at a neighboring former dairy farm to store DAF. He doesn’t want non-permitted materials stored next to his campground and corn fields.
Commission President Travis Breeding said the problem became apparent last winter as the yearly deadline for permitted land application of DAF residuals neared. From Dec. 15 to March 1, the residuals cannot be land-applied under state law, which is the reason for much of the DAF storage.
“There was a mad dash to get as much of this material out on the fields as they could get on the fields up until that Dec. 15 cutoff,” Breeding said. “And then they started to store this material in these structures.”
Breeding said that trend led the county to call meetings over the winter to discuss placing moratoriums on the storage of DAF residuals. Moratoriums are still in place until later this fall.
“We knew that we had to be well educated in this decision … because of how important the industry is to our local economy,” Breeding said. “But just because an industry is a vital part of your economy doesn’t give them the right to become a nuisance. We had to try to balance that.”
At a July 9 county commission meeting, a county bill to create a food processing residuals storage permit was introduced. Notably, if passed, it would require closed-top storage, going a step further than the state’s recently introduced regulations.
During the meeting, Breeding said he visited a Goldsboro resident who “had never experienced flies like that before” due to nearby food processing residuals.
Speaking on behalf of the Delmarva Chicken Association and as a Denton resident, Porter expressed disappointment with the legislation and raised concerns that it’ll hurt the agriculture and poultry industries.
“You potentially open up the door that five years or 10 years from now, people are going to come in and complain about other odors (and flies),” Porter said.
In an interview with The Star Democrat, Porter said part of the reason for her opposition to the county legislation is that it “does not grandfather in” farmers who use open-top storage.
“I don’t anticipate that our elected officials are experts in all things,” Porter said to the commission, “… but I do expect our commissioners to be leaders. As leaders, you don’t manage to the exception and develop a policy for one person.”
Porter has emphasized that the vast majority of farmers store and apply the residuals properly. “We had a bad actor in this county,” she later said.
“It’s more than one,” Commissioner Frank Bartz responded.
Breeding, who has previously acknowledged that he expects “players from the poultry industry” to “have heartburn” with county legislation, admitted to Porter during the meeting that he believes they are “a ways apart” on the debate.
At a Caroline County Planning Commission meeting on July 10, the legislation passed with two yes votes from Breeding and Chair Jeff Jackson. Hannah Cawley, the commission’s vice chair, voted no, while commission member Keith Bilbrough abstained.
The bill will return to the desk of the Caroline County Commissioners on Aug. 9 for a public hearing.
“It is still an issue for a lot of residents in the county,” Breeding said at the July 9 meeting. “… That is why we have taken a very hard-line stance that you’re not going to be allowed to affect your neighbors.”
Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado contributed to this story.
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