Word: pfiesteria
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...this isn't just a matter of productive capacity. Mass production of meat has also become a staggering source of pollution. Maybe cow pies were once just a pastoral joke, but in recent years livestock waste has been implicated in massive fish kills and outbreaks of such diseases as pfiesteria, which causes memory loss, confusion and acute skin burning in people exposed to contaminated water. In the U.S., livestock now produce 130 times as much waste as people do. Just one hog farm in Utah, for example, produces more sewage than the city of Los Angeles. These megafarms are proliferating...
...alarming outbreak of deadly waterborne bacteria. Along with thousands of fish killed and infected, as many as 28 people who have come into contact with the water have developed symptoms including skin rashes, respiratory problems and memory loss. The culprit appears to be an obscure microbe called Pfiesteria piscicida, which under certain circumstances turns toxic. Though the precise trigger remains unclear, suspicion has fallen on agricultural runoffs, particularly from the region's numerous chicken farms. In addition to closing waterways, Governor Parris Glendening has named a panel to investigate the runoff problem and has called a summit of Governors from...
Scientists say it is too soon to know why these Pfiesteria became toxic, but most suspect "nutrient loading," that is, an excess of nutrition pouring into the waters in which the bacteria live. The nutrients could come from many sources, including sewage- treatment plants. But in an area that is home to about 600 million chickens (outnumbering humans about 500 to 1), poultry is the leading suspect. Chicken manure is commonly used as fertilizer on farmlands around the affected waterways. Environmentalists say when it runs off into the water, it brings excessive levels of nitrogen. They have called for restrictions...
Other states faced with recent Pfiesteria outbreaks have been less aggressive than Maryland. When 14 million fish died in North Carolina in 1995, some state officials publicly mocked the scientist who discovered the bacteria, and the state has resisted adopting major reforms. Across the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is seeing lesion rates as high as 75% in its Rappahannock River but has decided to keep it open. Glendening says each state must make its own decisions, but that for Maryland the recent outbreak requires stern action. "The Chesapeake Bay is a fundamental part of what Maryland is," he says...
...Marylanders seem to back their Governor's tough-minded approach. Nowhere is support stronger than along the water. Fred Maddox, who has been fishing in the area around Shelltown since the 1930s, reaches into a desk in his seafood-company office and pulls out a grim photographic record of Pfiesteria's impact. "Here's a rockfish with its mouth all messed up," he says. "Here's a carp with lesions on its side. Here's one with its nose all messed up." The state needs to limit agricultural runoff before the problem gets any worse, Maddox says. "We're already...
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