Gov. Mike Parson of Missouri recently signed legislation banning industrial food waste from Arkansas food processing plants. Waste from Arkansas can include offal, blood and grease, an estimated at 200,000 tons per year, being spread as fertilizer on pastures and farms in Missouri. The ban is related to concerns about runoff contaminating water.
Denali Water Solutions, based in Russellville, Ark., was one of hundreds of waste-hauling companies impacted by the decision. Denali has also applied for a permit to spread waste on 925 acres of farmland and pastures near Green Forest. Carroll County resident Dane Schumacher opposed the permit which he feared would contaminate land, rivers, streams and lakes in Carroll County.
“This was a wise move by the Missouri Legislature,” Schumacher said. “We also don’t need it here in Carroll County, which is a Nutrient Surplus Area. An NSA is an area that has been designated by the Arkansas General Assembly as having such high concentrations of one or more nutrients that continued unrestricted application of the nutrient could negatively impact soil fertility and state waters. Twenty-six of the 29 proposed land application fields in Carroll County have phosphorus levels above the optimum, and no additional phosphorus applications are recommended on those fields. We opposed this permit that would have allowed for the over-application of phosphorus to soils that do not need the phosphorus.”
Denali had a similar application to spread food processing waste on land near Fayetteville. Ozark Society President Brian Thompson of Fayetteville said both the permit applications for near Fayetteville and in Carroll County were put on hold by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Currently Denali is hauling waste for use in Sebastian and Crawford counties.
Since Sebastian and Crawford counties are outside of NSAs, there is no limit to how much waste can be applied there.
“They are getting tons of the stuff,” Thompson said. “At the moment, it is not a problem in Northwest Arkansas.”
On the Ozark Society website, Thompson authored an article that explained that the municipalities of Northwest Arkansas are under a lot of pressure to reduce nutrient output due to the longstanding controversy with Oklahoma over the effects of excessive nutrients in the Illinois River.
“EPA came down on sewer processing plants to lower nutrient content,” Thompson said. “Every successive upgrade to sewer processing results in expenses that are orders of magnitude greater than previous nutrient reduction upgrades. This is one reason why we’ve challenged the land application of industrial waste, as allowing those applications in the same watershed is only adding to the problem. To ADEQ’s credit, they have halted granting those permits for the moment.”
Thompson said taxpayers are having to pay for sewer plant improvements and additional land application of waste would increase nutrient pollution that can cause algae blooms resulting in low dissolved oxygen toxic to aquatic life. Poor water quality can also harm people who come into contact with it.
“ADEQ has a lot of rules for water quality management but not a single one out there is regarding land application of industrial food waste,” Thompson said. “We need to have some regulations, especially in Northwest Arkansas because we are no longer a small town. We are becoming a large metropolitan area.”
The Ozark Society was involved in the efforts to shut down a hog factory that was polluting the Buffalo National River watershed. Thompson said, with that issue, it was easy to pinpoint the blame.
“In this case, it is going to take a community solution,” he said. “ADEQ is trying to develop this nutrient trading option where one entity can get credit for nutrient reduction elsewhere in the watershed. I’ve read how it has worked around the Chesapeake Bay area, and it is very complicated. ADEQ may be underfunded and understaffed in order to do that effectively. I don’t have any pat answers to the problem. We are in a situation where material from three different states is coming into Arkansas. Missouri and Oklahoma plants are sending waste to Arkansas.”
But Thompson said nutrient trading is an idea worth exploring as it could bring more focus to non-point sources of nutrients he considers long overdue. He said the long-standing practices of land applying poultry litter to land has resulted in high concentrations of phosphorus in pastures across Arkansas.
“As always, the difficulty with nutrient trading is in the details,” Thompson said. “ADEQ has structured the language in the proposed trading rule very loosely to provide flexibility in hopes of encouraging trades. Our concern is that the language is so loose and so vague that credit valuations, as well as success, might be misrepresented. We have provided a list of questions to ADEQ regarding methodologies for credit valuation, reducing conflicts of interest and supporting credible reporting. The trade-off appears to be a matter of retaining flexibility without sacrificing accountability. ADEQ would like to bring the rule before the Ecology Commission sometime this summer.”
Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, president, said there is a fundamental flaw in large processing companies like Tyson and George’s putting off the responsibility for disposing of waste on third parties.
“Secondly, there have been rumors of a biogas plant being constructed in Northwest Arkansas to manage poultry litter waste,” Watkins said. “I see how this plant could also process industrial food processing waste. That concerns me on a couple of levels. There will still be some solids to deal with after it goes through the gasification process. I could see a poultry processing plant trying to increase the number of poultry producers in the radius of the biogas plant in order to make the plant more cost-effective. It could be also a magnet for attracting industrial waste.
“It is a mysterious area. There are no real regulations that apply to industrial food waste. Permits are created one at a time for those industrial waste applicants. We need better regulations with industrial waste. ADEQ says it is working on it.”
Another concern is the lack of information about the exact content of the waste being hauled. It can vary widely from load to load, and there is minimal testing. Food waste has a lot of variation depending on the different types of products.
“How do you know you aren’t overapplying?” Watkins asks. “There is no way to track it. Our concern is focused on the Buffalo National River. We are on the edge of a nutrient surplus zone, and one of the closest areas to apply chicken litter. There is no way for the public to track litter applications. Anyone can call and get a load of litter. There is nothing to stop Denali or Synagro from hauling waste to fields in the Buffalo River watershed or other fragile watersheds like the Kings River. A lot of iconic streams could be put in danger. I would like to see some data on how much waste is going to be produced from a biogas plant and how it is going to be disposed of. Show me some examples of where a biogas plant works as intended.”
The Denali website states it offers top tier biosolids management solutions, converting organic materials into fertilizers, renewable energy, and high-quality soil, benefiting farmers and the environment.