Connecting Manure, Water, and EPA - Amish face regulation

HP made news with its Manure powered data center.

NYTimes has an article on how the EPA is looking at the manure from Amish farmers and water pollution.

But farmers like Mr. Stoltzfus are facing growing scrutiny for agricultural practices that the federal government sees as environmentally destructive. Their cows generate heaps of manure that easily washes into streams and flows onward into the Chesapeake Bay.

And the Environmental Protection Agency, charged by President Obama with restoring the bay to health, is determined to crack down. The farmers have a choice: change the way they farm or face stiff penalties.

“There’s much, much work that needs to be done, and I don’t think the full community understands,” said David McGuigan, the E.P.A. official leading an effort by the agency to change farming practices here in Lancaster County.

There is an extremely low chance that HP could talk to the Amish to solve their manure problems with a data center.

Water supply is what has the EPA looking at the Amish.

Last September, Mr. McGuigan and his colleagues visited 24 farms in a pocket of Lancaster County known as Watson’s Run to assess their practices. Twenty-three of the farms were plain sect; 17 were found to be managing their manure inadequately. The abundance of manure was also affecting water quality. Six of the 19 wells sampled contained E. coli bacteria, and 16 had nitrate levels exceeding those allowed by the E.P.A.

Water is one of the most under appreciated earth resources, and thankfully the momentum continues to build to protect it.

If you don't think about how water use and how water waste affects your data center, get ready for a potential visit from a regulatory agency.

Are you acting like an Amish farmer who is stuck in the past?