Incentive offered to haul away poultry litter

By TEDDYE SNELL

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS August 15, 2008 12:04 pm

— The Oklahoma Conservation Commission has rejoined the fight to remove poultry litter from the Illinois River watershed.
Effective Aug. 1, the OCC will be providing an incentive to people outside the area who purchase litter from the protected scenic stream area, through a $370,000 grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to a press release provided by Mark Harrison, information officer for the OCC, the program will provide transportation incentive for all litter delivered after Aug. 1, so long as the request for payment is pre-approved. The previous program, modeled after a program by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to move animal waste, ended in May.
To be guaranteed payment of the incentive, all buyers of litter must have their request for payment pre-approved through their local conservation district office prior to ordering litter. The district will then seek pre-approval from the Water Quality Division of OCC before the application can be approved.
The new program will pay 3 cents per ton per loaded mile, and caps out at $8 per ton, which means the litter transport incentive extends up to a maximum distance of 266 miles. A $10,000 cap applies to each purchaser of litter, regardless of whether he applied for the incentive under the previous grant, the current one or a combination of the two. For purposes of this particular grant, purchasers must be part of a farm or ranching operation.
As before, pre-approval must be in writing and attached to each claim when submitted, and will expire six months after being granted. At that time, the buyer can apply for a six-month extension, but if they fail to do this, the money assigned to them will be disbursed to another buyer.
Kurt Robinson, president of Save The Illinois River Inc., applauds the efforts of the OCC.
“STIR is pleased that the Oklahoma Conservation Commission has made the effort to continue to work with the USEPA to receive grant money that will help cleanup the Illinois River and Spavinaw Creek,” said Robinson. “Every ton of poultry waste hauled out of the Illinois River and Spavinaw Creek watersheds is good for the future water quality in these rivers, and will benefit those farmers and ranchers that can use the fertilizer outside of these sensitive watersheds.”
Bev Saunders, an independent farmer and poultry producer who lives in the watershed, was happy to see the new incentive, as she believes it can help farmers produce crops and food for Americans.
“I see this program as a win-win,” she said. “It will help the poultry producers who need to move the litter, and it will help the end-user farmer by providing him with a great fertilizer at a much more affordable cost than commercial [products].”
According to program guidelines, the application field where the litter will be spread must have had a soil test within the previous three years, and cannot be spread within the watershed of a state scenic river, the Spavinaw-Eucha watershed, or any nutrient-limited watershed, as defined by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
Saunders takes issue with the latter.
“What I don’t like about the program is the fact it doesn’t help the end-user farmers within the nutrient-sensitive watershed,” she said. “If the soils tests indicate the land needs the nutrients and the end-user farmer is applying within the laws and regulations of the state of Oklahoma, that farmer should be allowed the same incentives as the farmers outside the nutrient-sensitive watershed.”
Saunders said she had a professor who worked in the area of water quality tell her that if the fertilization in the Illinois River watershed was reduced too much or eliminated, in 20 years there would not be as much ground cover, and run-off would increase tremendously.
“This would cause much more pollution,” said Saunders. “The land and water would both be in much worse condition than it is today. Whoever is making the laws and regulations needs to be very careful we don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bath.’ If applied correctly, poultry litter is an excellent and safe fertilizer.”
Kathy Tibbits, a resident living within the Illinois River watershed who is environmentally conscious, believes the amount paid to buyers is slim.
“Every ‘litter’ bit counts when it comes to making a difference for the river,” said Tibbits. “But more would be better. I’d love to see the threshold barriers lowered, so more people would benefit and more buyers would qualify. It is hard on independent, small, family farmers when the big guys have all the rules in their favor. They can’t afford to participate with the big buyers. It has to do with the farmer’s time and with economy of scale. And that is why we’re losing family farms with each new generation. Helping family farms to get soil nutrients is a side issue to the goal of removing the litter the fastest. But I wonder if anyone has studied whether it would be possible to remove more litter from the Illinois River basin faster if there was also a simplified rule for gardeners wanting a ton or so.”
Robinson also pointed out the amount of the incentive seems to be small in relation to the good hauling litter would do for this area.
“Unfortunately, like most government programs, there seems to be considerable red tape and not quite enough incentive,” said Robinson. “That may prevent some of the smaller farmers and ranchers from taking the time to go through the lengthy and time-consuming process of receiving approval. Improvements could be made to the program by streamlining the process, increasing the incentive, and providing assistance in the application process for the smaller buyers. The incentive could be provided on both sides of the hauling arrangement – not just for the buyers of poultry litter, but for the sellers as well.”
Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission Administrator Ed Fite believes the added incentive could provide extra funds for farmers.
“I know that with the escalating cost of fertilizer, independent growers can now make more than $1,200 per house by having litter hauled out of the watershed,” said Fite. “Multiply that by three houses, and that’s $5,000 they’ll have in additional money to put toward things like a college education for their children. In my twice-weekly trips to Tulsa to take water samples, I can’t tell you how many 23-ton, large trucks I’ve seen hauling litter out of this area. The Conservation Commission is adding incentive money, which can only aid in this process.”
OSRC Commissioner Rick Stubblefield also believes the program should be offered to a wider base.
“The changes in the lands eligible for the incentive program are politically driven, not science-driven,” said Stubblefield. “If soil tests indicate a particular parcel of land needs nutrients, and fertilizer is applied according to current regulations, then farmers should be eligible for whatever incentives are available, regardless of what county the parcel is located in.”
Stubblefield indicated he thinks the changes stem from Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s poultry lawsuit.
“It appears to me these changes were orchestrated to pretend that the court has ruled in Mr. Edmondson’s favor regarding his emergency injunction to ban poultry litter use,” said Stubblefield. “Of course, 150 have passed without a court ruling on Mr. Edmondson’s ‘emergency.’ In Oklahoma government, the next best thing to getting a favorable court ruling is to pretend you got a favorable ruling. That is, by and large, what these program changes are all about.”
Stubblefield also believes the amount the program offers farmers is scant, and should be increased.
“With the costs of commercial fertilizer skyrocketing the past two years, there is a legitimate point of view with regard to lowering the incentives available,” he said. “But if the state believes that incentives are appropriate, then they need to be substantial enough to make the program viable. This may be a back door effort by state agencies to kill the program while pretending to support it.”
Robinson indicated a joint effort will be necessary to truly aid in restoring and maintaining water quality.
“To bring about real change in the water quality in the Illinois and Spavinaw watersheds, some of these ideas and others that increase the incentives for buyers and sellers of poultry litter could be used in conjunction with a master plan that eliminates poultry-waste fertilization altogether within these important, sensitive watersheds for the benefit of all future generations of Oklahomans,” he said.

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