Chicken Manure at Center of Delaware Lawsuit

By:Duane Craig

Chicken manure has caused an environmental group interested in preserving the waters of Delaware’s bays to file a lawsuit against a farmer and Perdue Farms, according to this article. The charge is that the chicken manure from operations seep into local waterways, eventually reaching Chesapeake Bay.

But a recent motion by lawyers for the defendants requests the members of the court to visit the operations which are more than 120 miles from the courthouse. The plaintiffs claim that visiting the site would be arduous because of its distance and that conditions could have changed and not reflect the reality that existed when evidence was initially collected. Earlier the plaintiff’s case had been modified to be less severe than originally claimed, causing the judge to critique the arguments the plaintiff was making. The plaintiff's website suggests Perdue hides behind its contract farmers to avoid responsibility for the contamination created in the growing of its product.