Manure has become a sticky subject.
Regulators and environmental groups have taken considerable interest in
protecting surface and groundwater quality from the runoff impacts of manure
from dairies.
In California’s central valley, the Water
Board has new requirements for dairies that will be phased in over the next
five years. There will be a manifest system for any manure sent
offsite. If manure is reused onsite (applied to agricultural fields), an
elaborate calculation has to be made to determine if it is being applied in
agronomic proportions (more nitrogen/nutrients not applied to lands than will
be taken up by the specific crop).
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb5/water_issues/dairies/index.html
Ryan Bailey
Sacramento County
Business Environmental Resource Center
baileyr@no.address
www.sacberc.org
From:
GreenYes@no.address [mailto:GreenYes@no.address] On Behalf Of Alan Muller
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2007
6:05 PM
To: GreenYes@no.address
Subject: [GreenYes] Re: [horse
shit incineration][GreenYes] The special beauty of the FTBOA-Global Green
project horse manure [horse shit incineration]
Oh, my, what a crappy idea....
As far as I know, every sustainable agricultural system in human history has
relied very significantly on returning manure to the fields/gardens as
nutrients....
(Well, yes, some cultures have used dung for fuel for domestic cooking. Tibet? Plains Indians?)
Larry? How about some modern incarnation of "buffalo chips?"
Why use pet coal to make "charcoal" briquettes? We could
convert all those gas grill users to freeze-dried, shrink-wrapped,
easy-lighting equine deposits.....
It's all a matter of selling a lifestyle...
Alan
At 07:53 PM 11/11/2007 -0500, LWheeler45@no.address wrote:
Published Nov. 11, 2007 7:30
am
Ocala Star Banner
Every
rose has its thorn
Nothing personifies Marion County more than its horse farms. The sight of grazing mares and foals against a
backdrop of rolling pastures and moss-draped oaks creates a picture-postcard
portrait of our community that is a chamber of commerce dream. It's a living
dream that also happens to create thousands of jobs and pump hundreds of
millions of dollars into the local economy each year, not to mention the
visitors and sportsmen it attracts from the world over.
But, as the old proverb goes, every rose has its thorn.
The thorn, in this case, is mounds upon mounds of horse manure
produced by the 50,000-plus horses that make Marion County the horse capital of
the world. The county's 700-800 horse farms, in fact, produce an estimated
400,000 tons a year of the stinking stuff, about one-fourth of which the farms
currently can't dispose of through existing methods. And that 100,000-ton
surplus is more than an unsightly, odorous nuisance. It is an environmental
hazard that pollutes our groundwater supply.
For the past decade the horse industry hereabouts has been on notice that it
needed to do something about disposing of the excess manure in a
environmentally responsible way. The pressure to finally do that is now intense
as the county appears ready to pass a stringent Springs Protection Act that
will forbid stockpiling horse waste; enactment of the ordinance could come as
early as late 2008. After much discussion and at least one failed, $2 million
foray a few years back to address the manure quandary, the Florida Thoroughbred
Breeders' and Owners' Association may have found a workable solution. It is a solution
that proponents believe will be not only environmentally beneficial, but
economically beneficial as well. All the better.
FTBOA announced earlier this month it has formed a partnership with
Georgia-based Global Green Solutions, known as Florida Greensteam Equine
Energy, to build an incineration plant
that would burn horse "muck," the mix of manure, urine and stable
bedding the farms produce. During the super-hot burning process, steam would be
produced that, in turn, would generate electricity. The Florida Greensteam
partners then hope to sell that electricity to area power companies like Ocala
Electric Utility and Florida Progress Energy.
FTBOA Executive Vice President Dick Hancock said the $20 million plant is
expected to produce 10-12 megawatts of electricity, based on the 100,000 tons
of excess horse waste. That, he said, is about enough to meet the power needs
of a city the size of Williston. Hancock added that its developers believe the
proposed plant could ultimately handle twice as much waste as is now planned,
and the partners might approach local governments about taking on wood waste
such as construction and yard debris. That could be a sorely needed relief
valve for the county, in particular, as it struggles to make room at its
fast-filling Baseline Landfill.
The special beauty
of the FTBOA-Global Green project, at this point, is that it is not asking for
on any governmental funding to move forward. Although the partnership is
applying for some state and federal alternative energy grants, it
is looking to revenues from the sale of its electrical generation to pay off
the two parties' investments.
As long as Marion County remains the horse capital of the world - and we pray
that it does forever - there will be mountains of horse manure to contend with.
Until now, it has been an accepted, if unpleasant, inconvenience and pollutant.
But with protecting our diminishing groundwater supply from continuing
pollution and unavoidable imperative, something had to give.
It is refreshing the FTBOA has not reneged on its long-standing pledge to find
an acceptable, environmentally responsible solution to its organic pollution
problem. At the same time, we understand this is a new and largely untested
technology that may take time to get the kinks out of completely.
Unfortunately, time isn't something the horse industry or our groundwater
supply, and particularly our precious springs, have in any semblance of
abundance.
Every rose has its thorn, but if the FTBOA plan works, maybe our rose will
smell just a little bit sweeter and our water will be little bit cleaner.
Leonard
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