Playing chicken with the environment

There is an interesting article on the environmental harm caused by the chicken industry, and how the State Government, thus far, is not doing its job to stop it.

"The poultry industry has been flying under the radar screen. And Maryland is completely abdicating its responsibility to enforce the federal Clean Water Act," said Michele Merkel, a former Environmental Protection Agency attorney now with the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental group.

…

At issue is how much to regulate an industry that produces about 1 billion pounds of waste a year but is also an economic and political force on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Perdue Farms, the largest chicken company in the East, is based in Salisbury. Also, the industry employs about 16,000 people on the Delmarva Peninsula, annually selling 567 million chickens worth about $1.6 billion, records show.

So we shouldn’t require industries that employ lots of people to obey laws designed to protect the environment? Why is this even a factor in the discussion?