HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Environmental agencies are working with Pennsylvania farmers, many of them Amish, to keep cow manure out of Chesapeake Bay.
The 24 Lancaster County farms involved in the pilot program were chosen at random, USA Today reports. John Hines, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania environmental protection department, said inspectors found cow manure being carried into a tributary of the Susquehanna River by rain.
Lancaster County is one of three farming areas with the Delmarva Peninsula and the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia that contribute large amounts of nitrogen to the bay. The nitrogen contributes to the growth of algae, which has created "dead zones" in the bay where fish and underwater plants do not have the oxygen they need.
John Hanger, the secretary of environmental protection, said his agency is helping farmers correct problems instead of imposing fines.
"It's a credit to everybody that we're doing this without going to war over it," Hanger said. "You have to start from a position of respecting the farmer and believing he wants to fix the problem."
