Biogas promises to be a solution to farm country’s animal waste problem. But a Delaware community is concerned it could lead to more pollution
First published on Fri 17 Mar 2023 10.00 GMT, she was welcomed by a horrible stench. The smell came from rows and rows of chicken houses that hold thousands of birds and are located near mobile home parks, churches and single-family homes in this largely rural community.
Now, a new industrial use for chicken waste is being considered, but it could create new problems for the working-class rural region: a major proposed biogas plant would transform 250,000 tons of poultry waste each year into methane and other byproducts.
The question of what to do with all the waste that stems from the region’s poultry production is already weighing on the local community. Currently, manure is often applied to fields as fertilizer – but that presents environmental problems, as the manure contains nitrogen and phosphorus that can run off into waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay, and is lethal to fish and crabs.
There are approximately 2,300 biogas systems operating in the US, according to the American Biogas Council, a trade association for the industry. While most of the systems process wastewater or operate at landfills, about 300 are located on farms. In North Carolina, residents lodged a civil rights complaint against one such project, claiming the plan to convert hog waste into biogas would pose pollution hazards to nearby Black and Latino communities.
“They trying to put these in places where they think people don’t care,” said Leon Lofland, 71, a Black truck driver who has lived in the Sussex Manor mobile home park, a sprawling lot of dozens of trailers about a half mile from the proposed biogas system, for a decade.His neighbor Maria Celayos, 32, lives with her four children and husband in a three-room mobile home at the park. Outside her trailer, a pink toy car was parked against a tree and a pink scooter lay on the lawn.
Michael J Kleeman, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, who has researched the air quality implications of biogas production and use, said after reviewing the plans that they seemed to “appropriately address all the concerns related to air and water pollution”.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
China’s sound and fury over Aukus will mean little for ties with Australia | Benjamin HerscovitchBeijing wants the relationship ‘back on the right track’ regardless of the trilateral pact
Read more »
Janet Yellen: US banking system is ‘sound’ despite two collapses in a weekTreasury secretary attempts to reassure nervous investors that emergency measure succeeded and bank deposits ‘will be there’
Read more »
Locked up with only 'the sound of torture', Iranian protesters say they are being forced to confessZahra, 17, recalls how she sat handcuffed and blindfolded, waiting to be tortured for the ninth day in a row. Six months into the ongoing protests against the Islamic regime, this is a daily reality for many Iranians pushing to overthrow the government.
Read more »
Public warning as police lose stun grenade in Qld suburbA sound-and-flash grenade that has the 'capacity to injure' is missing in a Townsville suburb after being lost by Queensland Police's tactical squad.
Read more »
Yellen seeks to reassure Congress on banks amid oversight angst“I can reassure the members of the committee that our banking system remains sound,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress.
Read more »
Markets on alert after US banks join forces to rescue First Republic – business liveGlobal shares rise as $30bn lifeline for US bank eases fears of imminent collapse and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says US banking system ‘is sound’
Read more »