Dear Representative,
I am writing to express my support for the University of Maryland School of Law and, in particular, its Environmental Clinic. I am strongly opposed to any attempt by the state legislature to take any kind of action to punish the law school for the important legal steps the Clinic is undertaking to protect Maryland’s greatest natural resource, the Chesapeake Bay. The Environmental Clinic plays an important and irreplaceable role in helping to restore the Bay, and your vote to curtail the Clinic’s academic freedom and pursuit of its mission is a vote against the health and restoration of the Bay.
The legislative effort to counter the Clinic arises from a case brought by the Clinic against one of the largest poultry producers in the country, Perdue Farms, and one of its contract growers on the Eastern Shore. The case was brought after water samples taken from a drainage ditch leaving the contract operation showed many pollutants, including nutrients and fecal bacteria that were 260 times greater than water quality standards. Even then, Perdue and its contract operation were sued only after the Plaintiff and the Clinic waited 72 days for them to reach out and say they wanted to clean up their mess. Instead, they ignored the warning and just kept polluting.
Much of what you’ve heard of this case is built on propaganda driven by an industry that simply wants to keep polluting the Bay without interference from well-intentioned people like the Environmental Clinic. As a legislator, you have an obligation to the people of the state of Maryland to learn the real facts instead of relying on the misinformation being spread by industry. You can get some of those facts by visiting http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/six-myths-and-facts-about-per... and http://www.law.umaryland.edu/
Sincerely,
