PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (AP) — Somerset County officials have approved stricter rules for poultry houses after residents raised a stink about bad smells and loud noises coming from their neighbors.
County Commissioners on Tuesday adopted an ordinance that calls for the minimum space between chicken houses and residences to be doubled from 200 feet to 400 feet.
The ordinance also calls for buffers, such as plants, around poultry houses to further block the view, sediment in the air, and odor.
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32 comments:
They really need to have all of these stinkin thing moved to an island so no one has to smell them.
And these new rules are just a start.
Let's review the last few years.
We have gotten CAFO permits with an annual fee implemented.
Storm water plans and permits that have dratically raised the cost of new construction.
The PMT is being implemented.
Every county is tighting up their zoning.
The upper shore is/has taken a stand against CAFOS.
The general population is being informed of how Big Ag is operating using undercover/whistleblower videos.
And this is just the beginning!
Or here is an IDEA 10:43 AM: How about you DON'T MOVE NEXT TO or THE SAME AREA AS A chicken house?????????????
I can understand if you lived there first and someone built some next to or near you, but honestly, I have lived like 500 feet away from chicken houses my whole life and not heard any noise nor get the sticky smell, until I ride by it... SO I don't know why you are complaining except to complain...
Move to Baltimore, I here the air is cleaner up there. Chickens make great neighbors, they are good to eat, and don't break in to your house.
Newest problem of the county, since farmers cann't sell farm land for developments as easy as they used too. We have a farmer that took out a large area of forest to put in new chicken houses next to his
4 new ones he just built. Our neighborhood was adjacent to a forest
now it will be adjacent to 4 or more new houses., WTF !
The new rules need to be made into Laws!
Set up a huge fine for not complying and use that fine money for our schools.
Kind of a penalty for poisoning our children's water, and air!
I wish all these do good liberals that hate it over here would go back to Washington and Baltimore.
Regulations kill jobs.
If you don't want to live next to chicken houses then don't buy/build and house in an A-1 zone. It's just that simple. If you choose to live in an A-1 zone you should be smart enough to realize what is allowed there.
It seems that Eastern Shore residents have been living near chicken houses for years now and are they really having any medical issues because of it? I haven't heard of any.
Please, please, please!
More commercials of Jim Purdue with the happy chickens eating the wonderful grains, and his trucks with the happy farm logos, but none of the chickens getting caught on round up to slaughter day? Or the wonderful scalding water they love to get after they have had their heads cut off?
Jim, YOUR AN IDIOT AND A FRAUD!!
Even the gigantic donations you give out have blood on them, and it isn't yours...
So how does A-2 Airport overlay fall 1:08. It isn't A-1 ?
A-2
Page 59 of zoning regulations indicate that under performance standards that no use of the land that emits smoke or odor. I do believe that chicken houses emits odor ?
Jets and turbo props emit odors too.
When we went to closing on a property we purchased few years ago in Somerset County we had to sign a form acknowledging that we were aware that we were purchasing in an agricultural area and that there could be offensive odors or noise. Seems this is common practice so no one should be surprised.
Nobody likes the smell chicken houses can produce. But it is a way of life here. As far as I am concerned chickens and the structures they are housed in have seniority over the dreaded 'come here's'.
Now, like someone has already stated, if you built your McMansion and someone comes along and builds a chicken house next to it, you may have a right to complain.
The chicken houses are zoned A-1 you are stating Zone A-2.
"... if you built your McMansion and someone comes along and builds a chicken house next to it, you may have a right to complain."
It depends on where you build your McMansion. If you build it in R-1, R-2, R-3, etc. you are safe. If you build in an agricultural zone that's your tough luck. There is a reason counties have zoning laws.
When I don't live next door to a chicken house, but still get the rotten stink from it a half a mile away, there is a problem! That stink is full of airborne bacteria, and deceases. When my well water shows traces of nitgerine and phosphorous, there is a problem. They need more regulations to keep regular folks from getting sick.
85% of Somerset County is Ag/Residential. Unless you live in Crisfield, Princess Anne, or the marshes you are at risk to CAFO's. This is why Somerset County property values are in the tank. Wind turbines, solar panels, and CAFO's have more favor than people.
Bad leaders = bad outcomes.
R-2 in Somerset means you could have 21,000 solar panels across the street. Zoning in Somerset only protects you if you are related to a commissioner.
Regulate farms away from the Eastern Shore and watch what happens...
We are working hard to get rid of the unsustainable welfare factory farms.
When we are ultimately successful our beautiful eastern shore can return to what my grandparents described to me. Successful sustainable farmers and watermen growing real healthy food.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
"... if you built your McMansion and someone comes along and builds a chicken house next to it, you may have a right to complain."
It depends on where you build your McMansion. If you build it in R-1, R-2, R-3, etc. you are safe. If you build in an agricultural zone that's your tough luck. There is a reason counties have zoning laws.
August 12, 2016 at 5:20 PM
Lord, we know already. geesh
Anonymous Bill C. said...
When I don't live next door to a chicken house, but still get the rotten stink from it a half a mile away, there is a problem! That stink is full of airborne bacteria, and deceases. When my well water shows traces of nitgerine and phosphorous, there is a problem. They need more regulations to keep regular folks from getting sick.
August 12, 2016 at 5:23 PM
Nitrogen and phosphorus occur in drinking water naturally. Certain nitrates are not good in a water supply at a certain level, which I do not know is that level.
If you are referring to a high concentration of these elements they may be a problem. But you did not indicate what the concentration levels were so that is an unknown.
Most of the concern about bacteria from poultry operations centers on antibiotic resistant bacteria. Organic production does not use antibiotics, so there is no contribution to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Families have been raising chickens for Perdue for more than six decades. That’s several generations of farm families who have grown up around chicken houses, and hundreds and hundreds of parents who trust a farm is a healthy place to raise kids. Numerous scientific articles and studies point out that children raised on farms have significantly fewer allergy and respiratory problems.
Strong smells from a poultry house come from moist litter, which emits ammonia.
The smell is only present when the litter is being applied. After a day or two, the odor is gone. However, not all poultry growers use litter on their fields, and not all crop farmers who use litter have poultry houses. Any natural or organic non-chemical fertilizer is going to have some smell when it is applied to the land.
Most of the concern about bacteria from poultry operations centers on antibiotic resistant bacteria. Organic production does not use antibiotics, so there is no contribution to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Once dust and other particulates drift past the farm, they are so dissipated that they are less of a concern than what’s already naturally in the air. Concentrations of particulate matter studied at residences close to other farms found that the levels are much lower than those known to impact human health.
The litter in poultry houses is enclosed. A recent health department study that looked at more than 100 poultry farms found no correlation between the location of chicken houses and wells.
Poultry houses are enclosed and there is no liquid waste, so there is no manure discharge from poultry houses. Litter stored on the farm has to be kept in a covered manure storage building with a concrete floor to prevent run-off. Concrete pads at the main doors to the poultry house provide further assurance that litter is not tracked from the poultry house to the environment by the occasional farm vehicle traffic in and out of the poultry house.
Even though manure on a poultry operation is not exposed to rain, every poultry operation has to have an approved storm water management plan.
Farmers maintain grassy areas and plant vegetative buffers to absorb any nutrients that might be drawn out by exhaust fans. Every poultry operation must have a state-approved nutrient management plan. Perdue will not place chickens on a farm that does not have one. The nutrient management plan ensures that the litter from the farm is managed in an environmentally responsible manner, no matter where or how it ends up being used.
I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination. I looked up that information just as well as anyone else can. I hoped it helped and good luck to you.
So reset county property values are in the tank because it is the poorest and least educated county in the state. It has a prison and a sorry excuse for higher education for primary employers. Waterfront properties have some value but they are the furthest from areas of wealth and educated people. Easton is much closer to Washington/Baltimore and why the area enjoys high property values. They have plenty of farms in Talbot county.
These people are nothing but Domestic Terrorist.
That Maria Payan is an overweight slob who looks and smells nasty when she goes out in public. You talk about chicken who pollute? What about stinky women like her.
In case you didn't know it, Maria Payan doesn't even live around here, but she goes to all the County Council meetings. She lives in Pennsylvania, but the Chicken Haters pay for her to live in Selbyville Delaware so that she can live close enough to terrorize the elected officials and the locals. The first thing the County Council president should do is tell these outsiders that they don't live here and they don't pay taxes so they don't get to speak!
Anonymous said...
Newest problem of the county, since farmers cann't sell farm land for developments as easy as they used too. We have a farmer that took out a large area of forest to put in new chicken houses next to his
4 new ones he just built. Our neighborhood was adjacent to a forest
now it will be adjacent to 4 or more new houses., WTF !
August 12, 2016 at 11:29 AM
So! Did you hear about a law called "Right to Farm." You knew that when you moved to Wicomico County so it's your tough luck. MOVE!
Anonymous said...
We are working hard to get rid of the unsustainable welfare factory farms.
When we are ultimately successful our beautiful eastern shore can return to what my grandparents described to me. Successful sustainable farmers and watermen growing real healthy food.
August 12, 2016 at 8:19 PM
Dream on Alice, You Are In Wonderland! It isn't as bad as you make it sound you goof ball. Crime is the problem around here, not chickens. Oh, I forgot. So where do you think these welfare people are going to work when you get rid of all the chicken factories? You are a bigger problem than any chicken house.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I wish all these do good liberals that hate it over here would go back to Washington and Baltimore.
August 12, 2016 at 12:02 PM
Me too! Their bad breath pollutes our air more than any chicken does.
All these haters from Pa. and the Baltimore area complain about chickens polluting the water that they drink? What makes them think it isn't their septic fields draining into "OUR" drinking water!! Every time they flush their toilet it goes right into the ground and pollutes the Paleochannel.
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