Somerset chicken farmer targeted after dispute

As a proposed wind farm blows a firestorm on the west side, feathers are ruffling on Somerset County's east side as residents and poultry growers clash over proposed large-scale chicken farms along Backbone Road.

Residents and poultry farmers are standing their ground over land zoned for both agriculture and residential uses. And on social media, the fight's turned visibly nasty.

At issue are resident-and-farmer land-use rights, and the uproar could lead a review of the county zoning code that permits large-scale chicken farming and family dwellings to cluster along the sprawling, rural stretch.

Ben Nguyen, a Mountaire Farms grower, is at the center of a squabble, fueled over his plans to build six chicken houses in the Wildwood Drive area of Backbone — where a relatively new residential community has sprouted about 15 homes.

The county's Planning and Zoning Commission last week heard complaints by the Backbone Corridor Neighbors Association that opposes additional clusters of chicken houses.

Association members crowded the meeting armed with Power Point presentations by healthcare professionals and testimony from neighbors to poultry farms in other parts of the country.

"People who live in a residential area have the right to enjoy their property," Maria Payan, a York County's Pa., consultant for the national nonprofit, Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, told the commission.

Farmers also packed the standing-room only meeting, Nguyen among them. He paced along a hallway, clutching copies of what he called racial slurs against him and posted on Facebook by Backbone-area critics.

He currently plans six, 67-by-661-foot long chicken houses, known as confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. He said he scrapped plans to build more nearby after discussing the concerns of the neighborhood association.

"I support Maryland poultry farming," said Nguyen, a native of Vietnam. "I've been racially discriminated against."

He pointed to a Facebook comment that referenced him as people "(that) don't care about any of us here."

Another posting: "They don't live here (NYC) Chinese."

Lisa Inzerillo, a Backbone Road resident and community association member, defended the postings, saying "its not against Asian people or people in the poultry business," she said. Rather, "it's against people not living on these farms. They invest to put them up down here. They hire a tenant to run them, and in that sense, they don't care."

She and other association members say the code gives more protections to agriculture operations than to them.

Growers for the multimillion-dollar chicken industry say they're within the law.

Juke Marshall, a Marion Station four-house grower for Mountaire Farms, traced the struggling history of his profession in the region.

"We've done this for years and years, and we're following all regulations," Marshall told Planning Commission members. He also builds state-of-the-art poultry houses at Kingston Construction, saying that they follow strict guidelines. "They've upped the price, made us put in sediment ponds — it's been one thing after another."

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future presented studies that showed unhealthy consequences for residents within ranges of manure concentration. "Manure always is a challenge on the Eastern Shore," part of a peninsula, the center's Brent Kim said. "When it is concentrated in one place," it is a detriment.

Commission members who also are poultry growers or knowledgeable complained that Kim's inclusion of study findings on swine waste skewed the facts.

"We don't want to see ordinances from North Carolina unless it's poultry-related," said Planning Commission member Glenn Ains. He referred to testimony on the impact swine and other forms of animal manure have on the environment. "Information about commercial hog farmers from Carolina and out west loses credibility. Please give us information we can use."

Inzerillo said poultry ties by some Planning Commission members should excuse themselves from deciding the issue.

She was referring to Planning Commission member Kevin Anderson, who is president of the Maryland Grain Producers Association.

Gary Pusey, director of the county's planning office, said a Food and Water Watch spokeswoman, Michele Merkel, will summarize and submit testimony and expert presentations by supporters of the Backbone Road association.

Meanwhile, Pusey's office wants the county Farm Bureau to consider a possible review of regulations for poultry houses.

"If so, we'd like to know if they would be willing to work with the Planning Commision on it," Pusey said.

The county Health Department also would asked to advise on whether health-related poultry regulations need updating.

"I will take responses back from the Farm Bureau and the Health Department," Pusey said. "It could lead to poultry house regulations."