Cayuga County Water and Soil Conservation District has taken its first step toward creating the country's first European-replicated anaerobic digester.
County legislators signed a resolution this week donating seven acres where the digester project will be built.
Since 2005, the conservation district has been planning to use a European design to build a digester that will use manure and food waste products to produce methane gas that generates heat and power for use by the county.
The district has been waiting for the county's donation of land to begin the project, district
executive director Jim Hotaling said.
Seven acres of unused land behind the county's Natural Resource Center on County House Road in Sennett will soon transform into the site for the digester's process tanks, operational control building and two-acre composting facility.
“Getting the land was the first step. If the Legislature didn't endorse the project and think it was resourceful they wouldn't have given us the land,” Hotaling said.
Hotaling and his committee have already secured about $3.1 million in state and federal funding. Although some digesters already exist in the U.S., Hotaling said that this is the first digester to use European-designed technology.
When Hotaling and his committee visited Europe, they decided this would be the most resourceful type of digester to implement in the county.
“We feel this is the direction we should try and go with our phosphorous overload and odor concerns,” Hotaling said. “If we show success here in the county, it can be used in other places in the county or in the state.”
This digester will decrease the runoff from manure and food wastes into the environment, providing an alternative use for waste, according to a county resolution. Fertilizers created with manure and food waste can add phosphorous loading in waters that increases weed growth and water quality degradation.
Hotaling plans to complete construction of the entranceway to the facility before winter and hopes to have the building constructed by spring 2007. Digester committee members are still discussing design plans and cost estimates.
The district's target date for the digester to be constructed and running is mid-summer 2007.
Staff writer Kristina Martino can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kristina.martino@lee.net
Since 2005, the conservation district has been planning to use a European design to build a digester that will use manure and food waste products to produce methane gas that generates heat and power for use by the county.
The district has been waiting for the county's donation of land to begin the project, district
executive director Jim Hotaling said.
Seven acres of unused land behind the county's Natural Resource Center on County House Road in Sennett will soon transform into the site for the digester's process tanks, operational control building and two-acre composting facility.
“Getting the land was the first step. If the Legislature didn't endorse the project and think it was resourceful they wouldn't have given us the land,” Hotaling said.
Hotaling and his committee have already secured about $3.1 million in state and federal funding. Although some digesters already exist in the U.S., Hotaling said that this is the first digester to use European-designed technology.
When Hotaling and his committee visited Europe, they decided this would be the most resourceful type of digester to implement in the county.
“We feel this is the direction we should try and go with our phosphorous overload and odor concerns,” Hotaling said. “If we show success here in the county, it can be used in other places in the county or in the state.”
This digester will decrease the runoff from manure and food wastes into the environment, providing an alternative use for waste, according to a county resolution. Fertilizers created with manure and food waste can add phosphorous loading in waters that increases weed growth and water quality degradation.
Hotaling plans to complete construction of the entranceway to the facility before winter and hopes to have the building constructed by spring 2007. Digester committee members are still discussing design plans and cost estimates.
The district's target date for the digester to be constructed and running is mid-summer 2007.
Staff writer Kristina Martino can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kristina.martino@lee.net
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Al. Bronson wrote on Sep 30, 2006 9:48 AM: