Waco Tribune - June 21, 2004

Diary owner tries cattle waste treatment project to avoid litigation with Waco

June 21, 2004. Dublin, Texas — George DeVries hopes a type of bacteria will keep him out of court and in the milk.

A dairy operator in Erath County for 26 years, DeVries received an unwelcome valentine on Valentine's Day. That was when a letter came from the city of Waco notifying him of its intent to sue under the federal Clean Water Act statutes, DeVries said.

But DeVries said that months before the letter arrived he had begun working with Bion Environmental Technologies Inc., of Old Bethpage, N.Y., to build a demonstration project on his dairy that would treat cattle waste.

The city of Waco filed lawsuits on April 29 against eight of the 10 dairies that were warned along with DeVries. Six additional dairies were sued on May 27. But city officials are forestalling litigation with DeVries to see if the system on his dairy, which has more than 1,230 cows, will help prevent pollution. DeVries certainly hopes so.

"I think just about every dairyman around here knows they have to do something if they stay here," DeVries said. "It's a matter of finding out about what to do."

Wiley Stem III, Waco assistant city manager, said the city could not comment on the DeVries Dairy and the Bion project because legal negotiations are ongoing.

Bion Technologies is using hungry bacteria that company representatives say can remove as much as 80 percent of phosphorus coming from the dairy waste. State and federal environmental regulators have said phosphorus, fed as a supplement to dairy cattle, pollutes the North Bosque River. The river provides 75 percent of Lake Waco's water.

The anaerobic system — one lacking or having little oxygen — employs microbes that Bion uses in conjunction with other technology to separate solids and liquids. But the waste treatment begins upfront with the cows.

Phosphorus first gets attacked by the microbes when the waste is flushed away down alleys inside the cattle feeding area. That water is recycled and contains bacteria.

"That's when they go into search-and-destroy mode," said David Mager, a Bion official from Massachusetts, of the nutrient-hunting bugs. "That is what they live for."

Mager said it appears that "potty time" for the cattle coincides with when the alleys are flushed every six hours. He said he has no scientific basis for the milk cows' preference of when to go at just that time.

"The cows seem to get excited when the water is running," said Mager, a former dairy operator and self-described environmentalist.

Waste from the cattle, feed and bedding is channeled from the cattle barns into a concrete pit known as a "contact chamber." Liquid and solid waste then gets separated through a coarse screen that removes about 55 percent of the solids, according to Jeff Kapell, a Bion employee who also resides in Massachusetts. It is during this process that the nitrogen and phosphorus are filtered out from the liquid waste. Additional screening of the solids may take place in a centrifuge. Solids may then be hauled off to local composting facilities.

The segregated liquid waste is sent to a partitioned lagoon that acts as "bioreactors." Water gets additional cleaning by the bacteria in the holding pond. The water eventually is either returned to the cattle stalls for flushing the waste or is used for irrigating forage crops on the dairy property.

Bion representatives say the demonstration waste system DeVries is trying out also features water and air quality monitoring. The bacteria in the system as well eliminates pathogens such as E. coli, which is another concern to the city of Waco. But it is phosphorus that has driven more than a decade of controversy between the city of Waco and the dairies upstream.

Waco officials say the phosphorus flushed down the river during heavy rains drains into Lake Waco, causing excessive algae blooms. That leads to taste and odor problems in the lake's drinking water.

Phosphorus from waste in the river can come from sources such as lagoons on dairies and runoff from pastures on those farms.

Excess waste from dairies has traditionally been spread on adjacent fields to spur the growth of crops such as grasses . But phosphorus that is not washed away also can accumulate. That, too, concerns the city of Waco.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regulations since 1994 set a limit on the amount of phosphorus a field can have where waste is applied. The limitation presents potential challenges for this project. The water with removed phosphorus could potentially irrigate fields already overburdened with the nutrient because of previous waste applications.

Bion officials said they cannot speak for the city of Waco but they believe the system will help the DeVries Dairy pass the legal muster of the city and avoid a lawsuit.

"I'm unaware of any reason for this to not go forward," Kapell said.

Should the city believe the DeVries is no longer a pollution threat to Lake Waco because of the nutrient management mechanisms, the dairyman would then have to buy Bion's system. Kapell declined to discuss the price of that system. Similar systems can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Kapell said the investment would pay off for DeVries, who has to operate within an economy of scale to make money. The reduction in pollution would be sufficient for DeVries to eventually increase his herd size by more than 750 cows, Mager added.

Gene Hall, spokesman for the Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau, said he thinks the city needs to acknowledge that DeVries is making a good-faith effort to meet the needs of downstream neighbors.

"The city should recognize it for what it is," Hall said.

Roane Lacy Jr., of Citizens for Clean Water, a Waco-area group interested in protecting water resources, said if the technology works and the farmer can afford the system then DeVries might have a chance "to do things right."

Despite potential technology and fiscal support, the city of Waco still sued Keith Broumley's dairy in Hamilton County.

Broumley agreed to use his farm for a two-year "dairy waste reduction project" in partnership with the Farm Bureau, the Brazos River Authority, Texas A&M University and others. The project includes building a system to process liquid and solid waste. That waste would be turned into compost or into electricity using methane from the manure.

However, Broumley's dairy was added in the latest round of suits filed by the city of Waco. The city alleges his dairy was failing to handle dairy waste properly. Lackluster compliance with pollution prevention rules also has been cited as reasons for the suits such as Broumley's.

Broumley said dirt work has just started on the waste facility. He anticipates it will be finished in 120 days despite the suit.

"We're going to go on with the project at this point," Broumley said. "We love it here and want to live here. We feel we can live here and not be any detriment to the environment."

Richard Smith can be reached at rsmith@wacotrib.com or 757-5745.

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