afo.jpg

This map shows the concentration of animal feeding operations in Alabama and the location of Alabama's impaired waterways in 2014, as provided by the state's environmental management agency. Jacksonville State University developed the feeding operations map in 2011 with work assisted by volunteers. The vast majority of animal feeding operations, about 96 percent in state records, contain chickens. (Designed by Challen Stephens)

Alabama sells one billion chickens a year, supplying chicken to the nation and across the globe, shipping leg quarters to Cuba and chicken feet to Asia and chicken dinners to the Midwest.

And for every pound of chicken that chicken produces a half-pound of, well, litter.

The big poultry companies, almost all of which are headquartered in other states, own the birds and the feed and the distribution networks. The companies pay locals to raise the birds on their behalf. Local farmers never actually own the birds.

But they do own the waste.

So, if Alabama produces a billion chickens weighing approximately five pounds each, that leaves more than a million tons of poultry waste. Every year.

New rules

Until 1999, there weren't any regulations in the state on how large animal feeding operations dealt with the waste volume.

"There never told us anything about what to do with it," said Holly Pond farmer Billy Gilley.

But under the Clean Water Act, as federal regulators grew increasingly concerned about the water problems that can be caused by excess phosphorus and nitrogen and pathogens found in animal waste generated by large animal feeding operations, they looked for ways to control how much and when that waste was applied to farm fields.

Alabama reported in 2012 it had nearly 83,000 acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds impaired or threatened by phosphorus.

There are several reasons for excess phosphorus in the water, such as runoff from lawns made greener through commercial fertilizer. But the state lists agricultural runoff as the most frequent probable source.

Alabama gets lots of rainfall, so the more animal waste spread on fields serving as fertilizer - in excess of what's needed for the crop-- the greater the chance for storm runoff into the state's waterways. Farm and municipal runoff is considered "nonpoint source pollution." Nonpoint pollution includes fertilizers with nitrogen and phosphorus, pesticides and soil/sediment.

Workers conduct fish tissue sampling as part of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's water quality monitoring efforts. (ADEM photo)

The Alabama Department of Environment Management said last week nonpoint source pollution is the "number one cause of water quality impacts in Alabama and across the nation." The agency said many farmers are using best practices, but because of agriculture's "huge presence" in Alabama, "even small impacts" can add up over time.

Phosphorus and nitrogen can cause algae blooms and excessive plant growth, taking up oxygen, harming aquatic life and, in extreme cases, as in Lake Erie, algae can become toxic. Nitrates concentrated in drinking water can also be harmful to humans, especially infants, as it interferes with oxygen delivery in the blood.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management requires an annual permit for farms that feed a minimum of 125,000 chickens in an enclosed environment, known as Concentrated Animal Feedings Operations, or CAFOs. The regulations include soil testing to help guide farmers on what crops to plant and how much waste to apply. The Gilleys farm is a CAFO.

Farm of Distinction

Gilley and his wife Terri, raise chickens for Tyson and also raise cattle on their farm. The farm has twice been named an "Alabama Farm of Distinction" which recognizes the management and conservation practices of the farm, its overall appearance and the farmer's leadership role in the community.

Gilley's parents raised chickens and he recalls hating the task of hand-scooping water for the hen's every morning before school. The tasks then were nearly all by hand. Today, the Gilleys have six 40-foot by-500 foot chicken houses. Each can hold 26,000 chickens.

They raise them from day-old chicks to about 5-6 pounds in about six weeks. The birds arrive on a truck the size of a school bus. When they're ready for slaughter it takes about 30 tractor-trailers to haul the full load away, Gilley says.

The vast majority of the work is automated with computer controlled water and feed systems, temperature controls and heavy-duty fans. The "floor" for the birds are beds of straw, which rests on a dirt pad.

The waste is mostly dry, the wetter waste, known as "cake" is scraped out during the 14-day span between the departure and arrival of a new flock.

The drier base litter, which is mixed with the shavings is cleaned out less frequently -- depending on the farm -- maybe once a year, perhaps longer.

The cake is transferred to a nearby three-sided structure that resembles a cross between a barn and a stable, known as a "dry stack house." Gilley built it with advice from state conservation officials.

Alabama chicken farmers compost the wetter chicken litter taken from the chicken houses and often store it in dry stack houses until it's needed. Here, worker at Gilley Farms in Holly Pond is composting litter that was recently removed from the chicken house. (Brian Lawson/blawson@al.com)

The cake is composted with other materials, including birds that die during the growing period. Eventually it dries out enough to transfer, either to a larger pile for continued storage depending on the time of year, application on the farm's lands to grow hybrid Bermuda grass.

On a bright March morning, the waste has a slight musky smell. It resembles dry-ish mud. The older composted litter would be difficult to differentiate from dirt.

There are state regulations creating buffers between the farm and waterways, their neighbors and roads. The CAFOs have to file an inspection report every year, showing soil test results and how they are meeting the standards.

The private inspectors, who are certified by the state, are paid by the farmer to provide the testing and provide advice on quality improvements.

Environmental officials said the standards are being met around the state, noting "it's been many years" since ADEM fined a large animal feeding operation for not meeting waste control standards.

Gilley has annual soil tests done as part of his farm's permitting process. He's advised on how much animal fertilizer he can apply and what the levels of phosphorous and nitrogen levels are. Saturation of phosphorus is guarded against and Gilley says sometimes he just buys potash to grow the grass, there's already enough nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, so no reason to add more litter.

Heavy concentration

In Alabama, chicken farming took off the 1980s. After years of little oversight, regulations evolved beginning in 1999.

But in Alabama's 2014 report about waterway quality, "agriculture" was still cited as being responsible for 515 miles of impaired rivers and streams in the state.

Agriculture involves far more than poultry, cattle, hogs, and farming all make an impact. But poultry sales make up more than 60 percent of all of Alabama's agriculture revenues. ADEM says there are currently 677 permitted CAFOs and AFOs - feeding operations with less than 125,000 birds.

Much of that poultry farming takes place in North Alabama, with heavy concentrations in Cullman, DeKalb and Marshall counties leading the way.

Professors at Jacksonville State University in 2004 began to track down and map all of the state's animal feeding operations using aerial photos taken by volunteers. They updated the maps in 2011. They overlaid that map with the state's impaired waterways to finds concentrations of impaired waterways in many of the same areas.

The state has pointed to concerns about the concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen in the soil, known as nutrients, and the effects on waterways.

A 2006 bulletin from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System addressed the issue. They encouraged spreading out the chicken waste, trucking litter away from areas of "excess production to areas of greatest need."

The bulletin noted that poultry litter was applied heavily to cropland and pastures adjacent to poultry farms for years.

"This was no problem in the 1960s and 1970s when the poultry industry was small. Most Alabama land needed nutrients, especially phosphorus, and row crop acreage was high," the April 2006 bulletin reads. "As the poultry industry grew particularly in the Appalachian region of North Alabama, the situation began to change in the 1980s and 1990s. Today with over 1.6 million tons of dry poultry litter produced on almost 4,000 poultry farms, excess nutrients have become a serious environmental concern."

Chicken litter that has been composted and is being stored in a dry stack house at Gilley Farms in Holly Pond. (Brian Lawson/blawson@al.com)

State officials today say education efforts for farmer and regular soil monitoring have improved conditions significantly, but 2012 soil surveys in the large chicken-producing counties show a "surplus" of phosphorus. Levels are well beyond what the related crops can consume.

For example, Cullman County had a phosphorus balance of 247 pounds of surplus phosphorous per crop acre - above what was consumed by crops. For contrast, Madison County, with no poultry farming, reported a phosphorus deficit of just 6 pounds per crop acre.

Kent Stanford, a Sand Mountain-based Alabama Cooperative Extension specialist, works on fertilizer issues with farmers, helping provide education and advice. He said soil testing is aimed at ensuring fields don't get overapplications of fertilizer.

"We've tried to discontinue the potential for runoff," he said. "Certainly agriculture has contributed to water quality issues, but I think we're doing a better job than we've ever done."

It's not over

While the chicken houses of Alabama haven't drawn much criticism, there is an intense fight going on in Maryland over the application of poultry waste. Poultry farming has long been established on the eastern of the Chesapeake Bay and the bay is struggling with fish killing dead zones.

Environmental groups blame the large scale poultry production and the runoff for polluting the Chesapeake. Just before leaving office this year Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley pushed through regulations that would sharply curb poultry litter application in the state.

There was significant pushback arguing the regulations would hurt family farms. Incoming Gov. Larry Hogan suspended the regulations upon taking office and pledged a review. That is expected to take a year or more.

Other groups, including Washington, D.C.-based Food and Water Watch have filed lawsuits trying to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to more closely regulate CAFOs.

Scott Edwards, an attorney with the Food & Water Justice Project said the group reached a settlement with EPA. The agency said it would identify the location of each U.S. CAFO. Edwards calls them "factories, not farms." The agency later withdrew that proposal and is again being sued by Food and Water Watch and other groups.

A Maryland farmer was sued by environmental groups, alleging he was polluting the Chesapeake. A federal judge found in December 2012 that the advocates failed to prove their case, ignored cattle on the property and didn't establish that the pollution in question came from poultry.

Finding other uses for the waste, hasn't yet proven cost effective in most cases, said Florence-based agriculture consultant Bert Bock.

Bock has worked on proposals aimed at using the waste as a potential fuel source, but low natural gas prices are hard to beat. He said Perdue has built a fertilizer pellet plant in Maryland using poultry waste. Facilities recovering energy and nutrients from poultry waste have been built in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. In the future, credits for renewable energy and improving water quality may tip the balance to favorable economics, Bock said.

Some advocates contend that until the large poultry companies are directly responsible for the waste, farmers will continue to apply it where they can.

Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman said poultry litter "is a valuable commodity" used as an organic fertilizer for crops and it provides an "additional income stream for farmers who don't use it on their own land. He said Tyson is committed to protecting water quality throughout its operations.

"In all states that require nutrient management plans, we require farmers who grow chickens for us to have and follow a nutrient management plan that dictates the use or sale of poultry litter produced on their farm.

Alabama's waterways are not in the same troubled condition as found in Maryland, according to state and federal officials and water quality advocates say, but challenges remain.

Eric Reutebuch, director of Alabama Water Watch said there has been a "tremendous effort from the agricultural side" to deal with nutrient runoff.

"People look at Alabama as very backward, where in actuality some of our programs are really progressive. There are a lot of good things happening. They used to dump tons of dead chickens into the creeks near Smith Lake. A lot of farmers doing a good job, but it takes time for those things to happen."

Reutebuch said the conditions growers face will continue to present a challenge.

"When you've got heavy poultry industry at the beginnings of the Appalaichans it's, very rugged terrain you're going to get runoff," he said. "I think a lot of farmers want to do a good thing, but if you're just squeaking by, best practices are a low priority. It's a very difficult and multifaceted problem."

Making it pay

Alabama poultry farmers have in recent years managed to turn their chicken waste into gold. Well, if not gold, at least some extra dollars.

Stanford said in 2008 fertilizer prices skyrocketed. That meant that all that poultry waste that chicken farmers couldn't give away, suddenly became more attractive to crop farmers.

Poultry litter is low in nitrogen, phosphorus and potash compared to commercial fertilizers. That means farmers have to use a lot more of it, tons per acre, to achieve a comparable result. That also used to mean it was too expensive to haul and the price a farmer could fetch wouldn't be worth paying the freight costs.

That's all changed. Holly Pond famer Gilley said he now he has the option of selling litter from his houses. He said he recently cleaned out two houses, was able to sell it for $3,800, spent $1,500 on the shavings he needed to replace after the house clean-out and still made $2,300.

Stanford said litter has a market now, that "we're not at a point where we're producing more chicken litter than we can use.

"I get calls constantly from row crop farmers, they can't find it. Yeah it takes a big amount. What available doesn't come close to all the ground farmers need to fertilize in Alabama."

Stanford said the challenge now is timing, getting it to row crop farmers around the state when they need it. That doesn't always coincide with the cleaning out of chicken houses.

The Gilleys farm in Holly Pond is a CAFO, that means a lot of paperwork, quite a bit of regulation and it means some of his land - due to required buffers and setbacks can't be farmed. It can be a nuisance at times, he says, but the regulations also have benefits. It helped him get the storage building built correctly, he got good advice on solving a ditch problem last year.

"I wouldn't want to live in a place without police and deputies and laws," Gilley said. "The regulations can be a nuisance but it keeps up with those people who would be bad neighbors or polluters. And, it keeps my industry from being seen as a nuisance."