Hog Manure - New EPA Guidelines 1

[Muggle]

For those of you who build hog barns and manure lagoons - with the new EPA guidelines coming out - calling for "zero discharge" what if any new technologies have you found, new construction designs, are you having to implement to meet the new permitting regualtions?

Other then anaerobic and aerobic treatment of waste - what other new technologies have you seen/heard about to treat the nutrient and other polluntant in the waste water?

Dave/Aquatic Technologies

 

[gbent]

Dave:
I believe the "zero" discharge applies to discharges of waste water into waterways. The application of manure to cropland for beneficial use will continue to be permitted (I hope). Many states already have plans in place that are more strict than what the new EPA plan is believed to contain.

The plan overall may favor the movement of hog facilities to areas with less rainfall. This reduces the amount of wastewater dilution from rainfall, and increases the evaporation. The result being a smaller volume of wastewater with an increased concentration of nutrients.

Areas with groundwater for irrigation often mix wastewater with the irrigation water for ease of disposal.

 

[Muggle]

gbent - actually, as I read it, the zero discharge also applies to the ground, if the ground is over, or beieved to be over, a subsurface water source (aquifier) where the discharge could reach it through hydroligic action. As most states are going to phosphourous based land application of the manure wastewater/waste, this is going to leave a tremendous amount of wastewater that is unable to be applied to the ground.

thanks for the reply.

Dave Orlebeke

 

[gbent]

Dave:
We will have to wait until the new guidelines are released and digested to know for certain. For groundwater contamination to occur from land application, the aquifer would have to be very close to the surface. If the aquifer was this close to the surface, special considerations would cause storage lagoon construction to be very expensive. Land application will usually be in amounts less than 1 inch, and often at rates less than .5 inch. At these rates, a minimal amount of soil would be required to filter out all contaminates and nutrients. The soil will then hold the nutrients until the next crop can make use of them.
The soil is acting as a biofilter.

You only mention hog manure. I think the largest impact will be on the cattle feedlot and dairy facilities. These facilities have large outside lots, and have been allowed to discharge rainwater runoff from the lots after the water flows thru a settling basin. The costs of installing lagoons large enough to contain all runoff water will be enormous in high rainfall areas. The cost will also depend on the storm defination the EPA uses. A 10-year 24-hour storm will be much cheaper than 50-year.

Another possible area of impact is the size of facility that must comply. Currently, the limit is 1,000 animal units. That is 1,000 head of feeder cattle, 714 dairy cattle, 500 horses, or 2,500 pigs over 55 lbs. There is talk that threshold will drop to 300 animal units. The 300 AU limit is small enough to impact some "hobby" farms.

What area do you live in, and how do you think the regulations will affect your business?

 

[Muggle]

gbent -

From what I've read of the prelimianary guidelines (guess we'll know this next week with the submission of the final guidelines)the EPA is getting rid of the 25-year/24-hour storm event, and not making any allowance for any storm event, other then "zero discharge".

I agree that it will impact feedlot and diary's - we however are dealing primarily with hog manure (in the pit and lagoon)as our firm deals with treating effluent wastewater. How will this effect our business? We are preparing for one busy 2003 season, from Colorado to Iowa - we are located in Oregon, but our base of business is in other states. We are addressing fish rearing wastewater, dairy lagoon wastewater/lagoons, and hog pit manure due to Iowa, Minnesota and the other main hog rearing state's going to a primarily P based application rate. We can reduce the in-pit manure by 66% of the phosphate load, then utilize a lanthanum based solution to flocculate the remainder to whatever "load" the farmer requires. USDA and Rural Economic Development agencies have us putting in pilot projects at the first of the year, with outside monitoring by state university labs - so we see a big impact for our business. Won't be able to get to Canada for the forseeale future, but contractors and farmers have been contacting us to provide a demonstration there, as Canada has as large, if not larger, manure wastewater issue then the United States.

 

[kevb]

I have read this thread with some interest.The technique
of injecting manure into the soil could help with disposal
and contribute to soil quality.Does anyone have data on
soil tolerance to this injection?how much manure could be
placed per acre? Does the equipment exist to do this.

Thanks Kevin Barrett

 

[gbent]

Kevin

Yes, the equipment exists to inject manure into the soil. The two principal types are tank type injectors and towed-hose injectors.

With a tank type, a tank carries the manure from the storage tank to the field, and then traverses the field until empty. The advantage is it's ready to go now, and can be used with minimal set-up. Some disadvantages are soil compaction from a heavy tank, and long cycle times. Depending on transport times, actual application time may be only 10% of the cycle.

With a towed-hose injector, an injector is fed with an umbilical hose that is pulled thru the field by a large tractor while the waste is pumped thru the hose. The advantage is speed of application. A typical set would cover 20 acres, and would take 6 to 12 hours of continuous pumping. The disadvantage is set-up time. Pumping 3/4 mile might require one to two days for set-up and tear-down, depending on whether pipe or hose is used for transport. Unless about 250,000 gallons of waste are available, a tank would be faster.

A third common method of waste disposal involves spraying the liquid manure with a "big gun" sprinkler. Think of a yard sprinkler with a 1 to 2 inch discharge hole, operating at 100 to 200 psi. The set-up is the same as a towed-hose, but an extra operator and large tractor is not necessary. The advantage is the lowest cost disposal of large amounts of waste. The disadvantages include smell and loss of nitrogen from aqueous ammonia.

The soil tolerance to manure is quite high. Manure is an excellent fertilizer. The two drawbacks to manure as a fertilizer are concentration and nutrient balance.

The manure as a fertilizer is very diluted. The most important fertilizer for cereal and feed grains is nitrogen. Commercial fertilizers include anhydrous ammonia at 82% nitrogen, dry granular urea at 46%, or liquid UAN at either 28% or 32%. Compare this to manure at .05% to .2% nitrogen. Compounding this problem, manure is stored outside, where it is diluted further with rainwater.

Manure also contains 2 to 3 times the phosphorus necessary for a unit of grain production when applied to the soil at the correct nitrogen level. This is not a problem for infrequent application, as the soil has a high capacity to store phosphorus and phosphorus is not generally subject to leaching. This does become a problem, however, when frequent applications are made. This is often the case for the fields closest to the manure. The problem is further compounded in some instances by decades of application.

Typical application amounts for hog manure would be 3,000 to 20,000 gallons per acre, or in amounts of 1/10 to 8/10 inch.

 

[jfw]

Hi guys.

Just picked up on this thread. To increase application time per cycle while injecting, most custom injectors use a nurse truck to haul the manure from storage to field. (up here, anyways). Also, some provinces (Ontario for sure) have banned earthen lagoons as a storage option due to seepage problems. Here in Manitoba they are still viable due to our high clay content.

jfw

 

[oxilume]

Hey Folks,

Just a short note. If you are looking for a new and innovative system for CAFOs, for treating wastewater and animal waste give Carey Vanderloop with Vanderloop Industrial in Brillion, Wisconsin.

He has traveled the world over looking for the most promising system for CAFOs, especially for Dairy Farms. He can steer you in the right direction. He has seen over 100 different types of systems and/or presentations on various technologies for treating animal waste.

Respectfully,
Todd Foret
toddforet@usa.net