By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
News editor

 Future Bay rules worry farmers

Farm Bureau fighting one proposed bill

By Diana McFarland
News editor
Virginia farmers are alerting their local legislators of concerns about a pending Senate bill that could impose stricter regulations on nutrient run-off into the Chesapeake Bay.
Rep. Randy Forbes, (R-4th), who represents Isle of Wight County, was scheduled to receive a letter yesterday, Sept. 7.
The Virginia Farm Bureau has repeatedly stated that the bill could “place severe economic hardship on farmers.”
Isle of Wight farmer Dee Dee Darden said uncertainty about the extent of the regulations is what worries growers. 
The Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act, introduced last year by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, would allow the federal Environmental Protection Agency to oversee the regulation of nutrient run-off rather than allowing individual states to maintain authority, according to the Farm Bureau. It’s currently making its way through the Senate.
Specifically, the Cardin bill would increase the EPA’s regulatory power over nutrient run-off and would institute a “cap-and-trade” on water quality in the Bay, Frazier said.
Farmers located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed would have to obtain “offsets” to expand their operations, Frazier said.
It would also allow environmental groups to sue individual farmers — mostly animal feeding operations, she said.
The bill could also expand the scope of pollution permits to crop farmers, Frazier said.
“This bill is overkill,” said Virginia Farm Bureau President Wayne F. Pryor. .(click here to subscribe!)