By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent CELINA, Tenn. — Some farmers around the Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery may soon have a new supply of fertilizer coming from an unconventional source.
With the announcement of a $1.35 million contract by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for a water treatment system in northern Tennessee, MWH Constructors of Chicago, Ill., will design and build a water treatment system for fish waste at the facility according to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Funding for the project comes by way of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA.) Once completed, the facility will keep waste from flowing into the nearby Obey River, a drinking water source for Clay County, and stockpile nitrogen-rich material, which will be given to local farmers to fertilize their fields, according to the USFWS.
“This badly needed treatment system at Dale Hollow will make the hatchery much friendlier to the local environment and area farmers will benefit from the fertilizer it produces,” Salazar said. “The construction project will also be an economic boost and provide much needed jobs for the local community.”
Andrew Currie, manager of the Dale Hollow facility said it only makes sense to give the “fertilizer” away.
“What we would be faced with if we didn’t give it away would be hauling it off to the local sewage treatment plant, which doesn’t make any sense because it would cost money on both ends. It’s good fertilizer so why not have people pick it up for nothing and put it on their fields. It’s a win-win for everybody,” he said. “I have a list of nine or 10 local farmers who have already signed up, and we haven’t even started.”
The hatchery produces enough trout each year (300,000 pounds) to use 400,000 pounds of fish food. Currie said anywhere between 25 to 30 percent of that ends up as settable or suspended solids going into the water. That will all be removed once the system is operational, which equates to a lot of fertilizer.
Not only will area farmers be happy, but so will those at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Tisha Calabrese-Benton, who serves as communications director for the agency said the new system is a plus for the local environment.
“It is absolutely a win-win situation. They (the hatchery) already had a permit that regulated their discharge, and this will further the quality of that discharge even more and has a definite benefit for farmers,” she said. “It has an environmental benefit and an economical benefit for farmers. Anytime we can have a program that has benefits all around, we are certainly pleased to see it happening.”
The technology needed to accomplish the end result is not new, but it’s not cheap either. Currie said he has waited a long time to get something like this built at the facility, but financing has been the obstacle.
With that problem out of the way, farmers and environmentalists alike will be happy with the results.
The USFWS noted in a release that, “The system will be housed in a new building, which contains perforated drum filters. Waste water from the hatchery’s 104 raceways, which produce 1.5 million trout a year, will be diverted into the treatment building and the solids will be spun off from the water. The clean water will flow into the Obey River, and the solids will go to two effluent ponds, where they will be dried out and given away to local farmers.”
In an area that has seen its share of drought conditions in the past, the free fertilizer will be welcomed.
“The treatment system has the potential to really help farmers, whose crops have been significantly affected by droughts over the last few years,” said Rep. Bart Gordon, whose Congressional district includes the hatchery. For more information, go to www.fws.gov/dalehollow |
