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What’s Up with That? Despite the stench, there’s no regulations for manure

By Scott Hewitt, Columbian staff writer
Published: July 14, 2010, 12:00am

The First Church of God in Hazel Dell recently spread chicken manure on a new garden they planted. It’s right near my house and I can still smell the manure. They got it from some farm in Ridgefield for free. The whole neighborhood was exposed. They should have notified local residents. The Environmental Protection Agency says the manure was supposed to be composted for three to four months. How can they do this?

—Jack Davis, Hazel Dell

We dug into that pile pretty deep, Jack, and found no restriction of any kind on the use of chicken manure as a garden fertilizer — and no neighborhood notice requirement, either.

“I know of no regulations regarding chicken manure for garden sites,” said Denise Smee of the Clark Conservation District, which advises Clark County government on environmental practices and policymaking. “There are no regulations for the producer for composting or spreading either, only recommendations.”

We also checked with Clark County Community Development, the WSU Clark County Extension and the Environmental Protection Agency. It is true that the EPA has cracked down on manure from industrial-scale poultry farms getting into groundwater. But Judy Smith of the EPA office in Portland said the First Church of God situation — which she’s “very familiar” with due to frequent calls from church neighbor Jack — is a far cry from that.

“It was my brainchild to come up with a community garden” on the First Church grounds, said parishioner Michael Murphy — the owner of Sunrise Landscape Design and president of the Washington Association of Landscape Professionals. Murphy said he loves seeing the current wave of community gardens springing up, and wanted to get his church involved.

“I’m the guy with the tractor out there mowing (the church field) and serving virtually no purpose,” he said. He got the church to agree to donate a rectangle of land for a community garden. For organic fertilizer, he contacted a chicken farmer friend in Ridgefield with plenty of the good stuff to spare.

Why so good? Because chicken manure has fewer weed seeds than horse or cow manure, he said. “Chicken manure has the greatest fertility,” Murphy said. He added that his farmer friend “installed a rather large covered area with a concrete floor to comply with EPA standards. He went through all of that. (The manure) sits there and cures for a month. Then he can move it.”

The donated manure was delivered to the First Church field — after which, unfortunately, it sat and ripened for something like six additional weeks. Blame Mother Nature for that.

“The ground was too wet for spreading and tilling,” Murphy said. “We have had exceptional rainfall. That was the problem.”

And how bad was the smell? Bad.

“There’s no denying it was a strong odor,” said church staffer Jennifer Gilroy. “We all came here and smelled it.”

Got a question about your neighborhood? We’ll get it answered. Send “What’s up with that?” questions to neighbors@columbian.com.

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