Invoking President Barack Obama's executive order to get serious about cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a Manheim-area farm to stop sending pollutants into a local stream.
EPA said it inspected the farm owned by Melvin and Moses Petersheim on April 1 and found it did not have a permit required under the Clean Water Act.
Melvin Petersheim owns and operates an egg-laying operation with approximately 36,000 hens. His brother, Moses, runs a dairy farm on the same property with about 80 dairy cows.
The inspection determined that pollutants, including nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure from both operations, were discharged into an unnamed tributary of Chiques Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, according to EPA.
EPA is ordering the facility to cease discharging pollutants into the waters until the property owners have the required permit. The farmers also must submit a compliance plan to EPA explaining what actions they have taken and will take to comply with the Clean Water Act.
The farm is in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. EPA said it was taking the action as part of the federal agency's efforts to implement Obama's executive order for the Chesapeake Bay watershed and as part of a compliance and enforcement strategy to improve water quality in local waterways and the Bay.
Obama issued his order to get serious about the Bay cleanup in May 2009.
EPA flexed its muscles last fall when, in a surprise move, it inspected nearly two dozen Plain Sect farms along Watson Run near Intercourse.
The Lancaster County Conservation District got involved on behalf of the farmers, and the farmers are being allowed to implement conservation measures with help from the Conservation District.
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