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January 18, 2002

Shared Solutions

Philip Morris pitches in with grant money
in North Bosque watershed dispute...

By Mike Barnett
Editor

A grant of $50,000 has been awarded to the Texas Farm Bureau Agriculture Research and Education Foundation by the Philip Morris Companies to underwrite an engineering study of an on-farm anaerobic digester in Erath County.

The grant is in response to a water quality issue between the City of Waco and Erath County dairies, which are located on the North Bosque watershed. The Bosque feeds into Lake Waco, the drinking supply for the Central Texas city. Waste from dairy operations has received much media attention as a possible cause for the Waco water quality issue.

"We are working toward a win-win situation for the dairymen and the residents of Waco," said Texas Farm Bureau President Donald Patman at the recent annual meeting, where the grant was announced. "The study funded by this grant will determine the size and the scope of the technology needed to handle the waste generated by dairy farms in the North Bosque watershed. From this study we hope to establish, in cooperation with a large dairy, the first demonstration project to remove or treat all the manure solids and the liquids from the possibility of a non-point source runoff, and thus eliminate the nutrient load from the Bosque problem from the farm."

Russell Laird, director of agricultural relations for Philip Morris Management Corp., said the company made the grant as part of its "Shared Solutions" program. The company has provided more than $750,000 to 30 organizations since 1998 to address critical agricultural issues and interests throughout the United States.

"The future of our company and the future of agriculture goes hand in hand," Laird said. "We need milk to make Kraft cheese. And we're glad to do our part to try to help on the issue."

Laird stressed Philip Morris was not trying to provide a "magic" fix for the issue that has pitted Erath County dairymen against the City of Waco.

"This is an issue with a lot of history," Laird said. "It's controversial. It's complex and technical. It will require work from a lot of folks to get it done. We're not going to pretend we can come in and magically solve the issue with our help. But we're proud to be a part of it."

Anaerobic digestion technology, which converts manure into electricity and produces a high grade compost, has been in existence since the 1940s and continues to be successfully used for sewage and industrial waste treatment. There are currently 31 digester systems in operation on livestock farms across the U.S.

The conversion process involves storage of manure in a sealed, oxygen-free environment. Bacteria then decompose the waste, and in addition to producing compost, the process generates methane gas, which is used to power an electrical generator. A manure digester system on an 1,800-cow dairy farm in Wisconsin has the potential to generate enough electricity to power almost 250 homes. Also, a water clarifying system would precipitate out the bulk of the phosphorus from the water, allowing the water to be reused in the system and resulting in a much reduced nutrient load on water used for irrigation purposes.

While the grant funds the engineering aspect of the study, Texas Farm Bureau Director of Commodity and Regulatory Activities Ned Meister said funds are still being sought to fund the project itself. The cost, he said, would depend on the size of a dairy. He estimated the capital cost for a digester system for a 2,000 cow dairy at $650,000 to $700,000.

"The good news is it has the potential of generating cash flow," he said.

The private sector is currently being scoured for funds for a demonstration project.

"I've got some government folks helping design what's called a RFP, or a request for proposal, and when we get that ready we will send that out to the various companies that will be doing the project," Meister said. "In that RFP we're going to design the request to meet that private sector standard that we want to meet—in other words, that demonstrates it does the job environmentally. And it's a good business deal for some company to come in here and do this in partnership with the dairymen—where the dairyman gets some return on the products being sold and that the company that does it gets a return so that it pays itself out."

Meister said work on the plan should begin early this year.