EPA Targets Amish for Bay Clean Pollution Diet

Amish Farmers in Chesapeake Bay Watershed Find Themselves in EPA's Sights

"I knew my cows were in the creek, and I knew that there would be some problems if [U.S. EPA] would show up," the farmer said.

The farmer is among a handful of Amish farmers here who have accepted federal cash for taking steps to protect the Chesapeake Bay. The payments are controversial here. The farmer asked that he be identified in print only by his first name, Daniel, because he was afraid his neighbors might see the story and criticize him for taking federal money.

Well Daniel, your father probably taught you that if you sup with the Devil, you should use a long spoon.  If you take the governments gold, you should probably do as they ask.

Lancaster Plain Sect farmers have historically spurned government help. But their desire to keep to themselves is being challenged as the Obama administration targets Chesapeake Bay pollution.

Some, like Daniel, are getting help from federal programs and nonprofits. But there are still holdouts, even as EPA plans new inspections in the area.

So why target the Amish?

"The concern with many of the smaller farms, whether English or Plain Sect, is with a traditional barn that's been built close to the stream," said Don McNutt, administrator of the Lancaster County Conservation District. "When they built the barn 200 years ago, the farm had two cows. Today there are 55 head of cows. The stream is still the same distance from the barn."

The problem is compounded by the concentration of farms in Lancaster County, one of the country's most densely packed and fertile agricultural regions. There are more than 5,000, about half operated by Plain Sect and half by "English," or non-Amish, farmers.

Under Pennsylvania regulations, every farmer must have a manure-management plan, along with a conservation plan or an erosion and sediment control plan.

 The majestic equality of the law is that it prohibits both rich and poor from sleeping under bridges...

Kevin Sunday, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, acknowledged that the agency has historically ignored smaller farms in enforcing those requirements.

"It was a matter of making decisions of how to best apply resources, so we took a look at the biggest contributors first and worked our way down," Sunday said, adding that inspectors would scrutinize a small farm only if they received a complaint.

But seriously, the issue of equality under the law is at stake.  If we let the Amish get away with letting their cows stomp through the streams, we'd have to let all the farmers let their cows stomp through the streams.  It's like whaling; if we let Eskimos or some other ethnic minority kill whales, we'd have to let everybody kill whales, right?