Company says it has pollution solution for Central Valley
BETHPAGE, N.Y.
January 25, 2006
• Claims it can handle air and water pollution caused by cows
• Uses microbes to handle manure
A patented "microaerobic" process developed by Bion Environmental Technologies Inc. of Bethpage, N.Y., could be one of the answers to pollution caused by the Central Valley’s hundreds of thousands of dairy cows.
The company Wednesday said it’s process is one of four found to be effective out of 44 studies by a group that included dairy industry experts, representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency, various California regulatory agencies, environmental groups, and the University of California.
((Download the 212-page California Air Resourses Board report by clicking below.))
"The California dairy industry is facing rapidly increasing state and federal regulation over its role in the pollution of air and water, and there is a critical need to improve the management and treatment of dairy manure to reduce environmental problems, while ensuring the economic viability of this essential agricultural industry,” the report says.
The "Microaerobic Biological Waste Treatment Process" developed by Bion was the only one of the four found to be effective that handles both air and water pollution, Bion says.
The microaerobic process reduces polluting releases to water of phosphorus and nitrogen by 75 percent to 80 percent on a whole-farm basis, while significantly reducing the polluting emissions to air from dairy operations, the company says
The remaining three technologies that did provide sufficient data that they could control releases each only dealt with a single aspect of the dairy waste problem. They were an aerated static pile, which composts the solid portion of the waste stream; a centrifuge, which removes the solids from the liquid waste stream; and an artificial wetland, which controls nitrogen releases to water.
Download a copy of the report here
( California Air Resources Board )
