The Maryland Supreme Court has voted 6 to 1 to overturn a lower court decision on release of ammonia in relation to state water permits.  In 2020 a Montgomery County court ruled in favor of the Assateague Coastal Trust that claimed that the Maryland Department of the Environment should be required to specify the level of ammonia that can be released in accordance to water pollution permits.

The Maryland Supreme Court found that the Department of the Environment was adequately managing water pollution and that permits issued to poultry farms were legal and valid, providing the permitted farms applied best management practices to reduce ammonia release.

A study by the Environmental Integrity Project in 2020 estimated that ammonia pollution from poultry farm runoff was responsible for the addition of 25 million pounds of nitrogen into the Chesapeake Bay each year from among six states including Maryland.

The Delmarva Chicken Association welcomed the decision of the Maryland Supreme Court noting, “This the third consecutive time activists have tried and failed to persuade courts to overrule science-based, legally sound water quality regulations.”