FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has awarded $507,902 to the Maumee Watershed Alliance to demonstrate technologies designed to lower the amount of phosphorus going into Lake Erie.

The funding comes in the form of a Conservation Innovation Grant, said Greg Lake, district director of the Allen County (Ind.) Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). The SWCD, in collaboration with the Alliance, will set up and oversee demonstrations at three locations in the watershed – a swine farm in northeast Allen County, a dairy operation in northwest Allen County, and a combined dairy/swine farm in Adams County. The grant is for two years.

The Alliance and SWCD will offer the demonstrations of the phosphorus recovery technologies “with the aim of illustrating 80 percent total phosphorus removal over extended demonstration periods,” NRCS said. They will also “explore the market value of two resultant co-products – dewatered manure solids and Amorphous Calcium Phosphate – to serve as a cost recovery mechanism and facilitate large-scare adoption.”

In addition to the grant, nearly $500,000 has been received for the project from non-federal sources, Lake said.

New ways to help reduce nutrient loading in Lake Erie are needed, he noted.

Officials from Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, Canada, signed the Western Basin of Lake Erie Collaborative Agreement in 2015. The agreement calls for a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus loading in the lake by 2025. The pact uses 2008 as the baseline for the 40 percent reduction.

“We’re not meeting our target of 40 percent decline in nutrient loading,” Lake explained. “We’re not moving the needle much. If current practices aren’t moving the needle, we feel strongly we need to look at new technologist to meet that target. By no means is the livestock industry being called on the carpet, but as we find ways to meet the target, livestock is being looked at.”

The demonstrations will involve the USDA’s patented Quick Wash technology, along with the Kendensha Multi-disc Roller Separator (KDS), said Rick Johnson, co-founder of Applied Environmental Solutions.

“Both of them do reduce the phosphorus coming out of a manure stream,” he said. “The Quick Wash technology can go a lot deeper in terms of phosphorus recovery. We have paired these two technologies together just from a general overall cost standpoint. Our goal is to maximize the phosphorus recovery while minimizing the cost to the producer.”

Quick Wash and KDS have been extensively piloted in Ohio, particularly in Mercer County, Johnson pointed out. They have been used to evaluate municipal and agricultural streams.

The technologies pull manure directly from the source, such as a deep-pit storage area at a swine farm, he said. KDS will do an initial separation of the high solids. That process produces dewatered manure solids and a liquid portion.

The majority of the phosphorous is in the liquid portion, Johnson said. The Quick Wash technology pulls the phosphorous out of the liquid, producing a balanced fertilizer-type product. The end result is a stream low in phosphorus, he added.

The project’s primary objective is to demonstrate a significant phosphorus reduction across multiple sources of manure, Johnson said. “Secondly, to explore the market value of those precipitated products. Once we have those two pieces, then it gets into a design question – how big a tank do you need, how much pumping do you need, etc..”

Based on testing in Ohio, the technologies have shown 96-97 percent phosphorus reduction for swine operations, and 85-95 percent reduction for dairy. Johnson said they expect to see similar reductions for the mixed manure operation in Adams County.

To help entice producers to add the technologies to their operations, Johnson said the cost of making the precipitated phosphorus has to be less than the cost of land application. “That can mean different things to different people. Some places, that’s a penny a gallon. Others, that could be 2-3 cents a gallon.”

As a part of the project, he said officials will look at various financing options for farmers.

“We’ve got to be competitive with land application (costs),” Johnson stated. “We’re going to be looking to establish a very firm, a good handle on what the economics are around this so when we’re talking to somebody, we can confidently say this is what the cost is on application of this technology.”

Agriculture really hasn’t changed its approach to dealing with livestock waste over the years, as it’s still applied to the ground to get rid of it, Lake noted. “As agriculture, we have to start recognizing there’s opportunities to move into new technology. We’ve got to embrace that opportunity.”

Officials will explain the grant project in more detail to producers and the public during the Going Green for Ag conference on March 17. The free event is at the Orchid in New Haven, just east of Fort Wayne. For more information, including a detailed agenda and how to RSVP, visit https://allenswcd.org/event/going-green-for-ag/. Lake said he hopes to see at least 120 people, including representatives of area municipalities, at the conference.