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The study of the local watershed does not bode well for Pennsylvania's ability to reduce nutrient pollution of local streams and the Chesapeake Bay, as will be mandated by upcoming federal regulations, the group warned.
The study, called "A Follow-up Study of the Health of the Water and Land of the Octoraro Watershed," says a review of public records indicates a disturbing number of large farms are not complying with state nutrient-management regulations.
Also, state and local conservation districts are lax in policing the farms, according to the study.
"The fact that the sheer amount of nutrients is increasing just goes to show that the programs that address the ways nutrients are handled just aren't up to the task of limiting nutrient pollution in the watershed," Jan Jarrett, PennFuture president, said during a press conference from Harrisburg.
"The Octoraro watershed is very critical because it's close to the bay and delivers a lot of nutrient pollution," Jarrett said. "If you can't clean up this waterway, then that really calls into question how effective the Chesapeake Bay cleanup is going to be."
The study, based on an examination of the management plans, compliance reviews, inspection reports and notices of violations of 54 farms is a follow-up of a study of manure use in the same area in 2004.
Don McNutt, director of the Lancaster County Conservation District, on Tuesday disputed some of the study's conclusions.
For one, he wondered how the study concluded there is more manure than five years ago because, he said, there are far fewer farms in the region.
"There are a number of vacant Amish farms in the area," he said. "I question whether there are more animals."
Also, he said the findings can be misleading because the study only looked at large farm operations, not the many smaller farms in the watershed.
"I know there are more best-management practices put in since 2004," he said. "More and more farmers are doing a better job. I think there is a lot of good news out there."
Thirty-nine of the 54 farms are in Lancaster County and one straddles the Lancaster-Chester line. Sixteen of the 54 farmers volunteered to be regulated.
In Lancaster County, streams in Bart, Colerain, East Drumore, Eden, Fulton, Little Britain and Sadsbury townships, as well as Christiana Borough, drain into Octoraro Creek.
This time, PennFuture said that despite 10 fewer large-scale farms and five years of state and private efforts to improve manure management, there is a 40 percent increase in liquid manure and a 17 percent increase in dry manure generated on the farms.
In total, 3.4 million pounds of nitrogen are now produced annually in the watershed and placed on fields, where an unacceptable amount runs into streams and the bay, according to the study.
"That's going the wrong way," Jarrett said.
In addition, 17 percent of the farms were not in compliance with their nutrient management plans while incomplete files meant 26 percent could not be determined, according to the study.
Of the 23 farms with the most animals, called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), two were not in compliance and five others could not be determined, the study says.
In addition to the high amount of manure in the watershed, one of the "most egregious" problems researchers said they noticed was "a lack of review of documents and facilities by both the state Department of Environmental Protection and conservation districts," said Kimberly Snell-Zarcone, a PennFuture attorney.
Of the 23 CAFO farms, 10 had not been inspected by DEP. Tanya Dierolf, a PennFuture official involved in the study, said she "assumed" all should have been inspected at least once by now.
In one case, a Chester County farm with 4,500 hogs had not been inspected once in the more than eight years since it was given a permit by DEP, according to Snell-Zarcone.
"Without boots on the ground, such documents are nothing more than paper exercises," the study says.
John Hangar, former president of PennFuture, has been the head of DEP since 2008.
