(RICHMOND, VA)—Virginia's State Water Control Board today in a 5-0 vote approved permits for three Virginia poultry operations. These poultry facilities on the Eastern Shore are the first in Virginia required to obtain discharge permits due to the result of inspections by regulators that indicated potential pollution. In comments to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Chesapeake Bay Foundation specifically called for water quality monitoring to be included in these permits. Chesapeake Bay Foundation Virginia Staff Scientist Joe Wood released the following statement.
"At the Water Control Board meeting, DEQ responded to concerns about insufficient monitoring. However, today's decision didn't go far enough to protect the waters of the Eastern Shore and the Bay. These precedent-setting permits fail to require monitoring of runoff flowing from these three poultry operations, which are potential sources of direct pollution to waterways. Without meaningful monitoring there is no way to know how much these operations are polluting local creeks, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay."
