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"Farming doesn't give anyone a license to pollute, and there are plenty of resources to help farmers adopt techniques to avoid having livestock manure enter our waters," said Kimberly Snell-Zarcone, an attorney with Harrisburg-based Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future.
Snell-Zarcone and PennFuture have given four dairy farmers and a poultry farmer 60 days to take steps to get livestock and manure off of bare ground, or face lawsuits to be filed in Lancaster County Court.
The legal action would be based on violations of the state Clean Streams Law, which prohibits any person from discharging "sewage" directly or indirectly into a stream, according to the group.
In letters received by the five farmers last week, Snell-Zarcone said the law defines sewage as waste products from humans or animals.
In the warning letters, each dairy farmer is accused of letting livestock onto bare ground, allowing manure and sediment to wash into nearby streams. The poultry farmer is accused of letting runoff from piles of open poultry litter run off his property.
The letters were sent to Raymond Zimmerman, 626 Nottingham Road, Fulton Township; Bill Fuller, 2272 Ashville Road, Little Britain Township; John King and his father, Emanuel King, Plain Sect farmers who live in the 1600 block of Robert Fulton Highway, East Drumore Township; and Larry Housekeeper, 1325 Lloyd Road, Little Britain Township.
Fuller, a dairy farmer with about 200 acres on several farms, was indignant about the accusations when contacted by a reporter Wednesday.
"I strip-farm. I've no-tilled for 25 years. If they want to do something, why in the devil don't they just come in and talk to me?" Fuller said.
"I think they're a bunch of shysters, if you ask me."
Fuller said he has contacted the Lancaster County Conservation District, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and others for advice.
Snell-Zarcone said she and other staff members drove through southern Lancaster County in the spring and witnessed runoff on the five farms.
She also said water samples were taken at the locations, but she declined to release the results.
Letters, including photographs of the farm practices, were then sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Lancaster County Conservation District, requesting that the agencies inspect the farms, Snell-Zarcone said.
She said the two agencies replied they would not be doing inspections or taking water samples because of staffing and funding problems.
DEP later inspected one of the farms but did not take water samples and told the farmer to work with the local conservation district on noted problems, she said.
"They pretty much punted," Snell-Zarcone said of DEP.
DEP spokeswoman Lauri Lebo said Wednesday that because the matter involves potential litigation, the agency would have no comment.
In September, PennFuture released a study that claimed livestock operations in the Octoraro watershed of Lancaster and Chester counties was producing "staggering" amounts of manure.
The study claimed that a review of public records showed a disturbing number of large-scale farms were not complying with required nutrient-management plans.
The five farmers threatened with lawsuits are in the Octoraro watershed or on the edge in the Conowingo watershed.
"Everyone acknowledges that there are large problems in Lancaster County," Snell-Zarcone said when asked why Lancaster County farmers had been singled out for possible legal action.
"It's a logical place everyone is looking at. All these streams are very close to the Susquehanna. They all feed into the Chesapeake. It's very connected.
"Generally, the focus on the farms in southern Lancaster County is a universal problem where we're seeing livestock on bare ground."
She said small farm operations were targeted because they are more likely to have bare barnyards where manure pollution can easily get into waterways.
She said PennFuture is aware that small farmers are struggling financially, but that there are simple things farmers can do to begin to correct the barnyard runoff problem.
What would it take to head off lawsuits?
A conversation between the farmers or their consultants and local and state agencies that the problems are being addressed, the attorney said.
