Chicken droppings ruffle feathers in West Virginia, USA

27 June 1997

Chicken droppings ruffle feathers in West Virginia, USA

There is a rising tide of concern about the volume of chicken droppings in
the Potomac River, West Virginia, USA. US environmentalists have put the Potomac
on their list of endangered rivers for the first time in 20 years.

In one town on the river, Moorefield, dubbed West Virginas poultry capital,
the air is filled with the smell of 340,000 birds being slaughtered. Each year
the groundwater accommodates 155,000 tons of chicken waste, including droppings
and carcasses.

There are 1,500 chicken farms in West Virginia. Poultry production has more
than doubled in 10 years.