020750 Pork Producer Using High-Tech to Fight Pollution

Unionville, MO (The Kansas City Star ) - After years of litigation over pollution from its large-scale hog farms, Premium Standard Farms, the nation's second-largest pork producer, is trying to clean up its act.

Under terms of agreements with state and federal agencies, the company has spent millions researching and putting in place new technologies to reduce pollutants in the air and water near its hog farms.

If the research pays off -- and people who live near the research facilities say it has a long way to go -- Premium Standard could put it to work at operations in Missouri, Texas and North Carolina that combine to produce 2.1 million pounds of pork a day.

Beyond that, though, officials say the technology holds the promise of reforming not just hog production but the handling of waste from large-scale beef and poultry operations.

The research is the result of a 1999 consent decree the company signed with Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, in which Premium Standard agreed to spend $25 million on technology to reduce hog waste pollution. So far the company has spent $10 million on its Missouri operations.

Company officials also signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency in May, which included a requirement to cut nitrogen levels by 50% in the processed wastes that are dispersed by spraying onto the farmland.

The EPA's agreement is unusual, officials said, because the federal agency usually only fines companies for violations. Instead, it has asked Premium Standard to seek solutions to spills and other problems.

"This is a good type of settlement," said Jim Gulliford, an EPA regional administrator. "The advancements in knowledge and science will add value to the entire industry and perhaps even across the board for the livestock industry, including cattle and poultry."

Company officials led several governmental officials on a tour last week of two facilities containing what they called "next-generation environmental systems" designed to treat liquid waste, improve air quality and produce agricultural fertilizers.

Those attending the tour included officials from the EPA, the attorney general's office, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Missouri Pork Producers Association.

At its Whitetail farm, about five miles northeast of Unionville, Premium Standard presented the Advanced Nitrification Denitrification technology, a project that cost about $2.5 million. In this process, waste goes through a series of water basins or lagoons.

The lagoons are designed to reduce harmful nutrients and odors released into the air. After the contents are processed, they are used for irrigation. A series of lagoon covers and an aeration basin are part of the process, which is an industry first, said Dave Townsend, Premium Standard's vice president of environmental affairs. Some of the covers are not part of the process but are designed to reduce odors.

The company began using the process in April, but it will be six to 12 months before results can be measured, said William Bryan, deputy chief counsel for Nixon's office. A three-member advisory team of university researchers will evaluate the results.

Neighbors of the Whitetail facility say they have seen no improvement since the adoption of the process.

"We not only worry about the contamination of water for our cattle, but also for ourselves," said Lynn McKinley. She lives on a farm about nine miles northeast of Unionville with her husband, Jeri, who has lived and worked on the farm all of his 57 years.

The McKinleys' 500-acre farm, which they use to produce hay, cattle and sheep, is surrounded by Premium Standard farmland on all but one side. Jeri McKinley said only 80 acres of his land had been spared from the noxious runoff from Premium Standard operations.

Whitetail's neighbors should not expect new technology to change anything this season, said Charlie Arnot, a spokesman for Premium Standard. By next summer, however, company officials plan to modify land application of processed waste.

The process should decrease the amount of nitrogen-based compounds in treated waste, which is applied to crops grown on the company's land. That would allow greater volumes of treated waste to be applied further from neighboring farms and streams. Arnot said.

The smell also is a problem, said Melody Torrey, who lives directly across the road from the Whitetail facility. Torrey said it had made her father ill when he walked outside, and she said it had forced her to install central air conditioning and heating systems in her home.

"I worry about the total impact, on the water, the air, the environment -- what it's doing to us," said Torrey, a member of several environmental organizations.

Neighbors of the Missouri operations with the new lagoon covers have reported decreased odors, Arnot said. He said the company would have to wait for further response.

Premium Standard also has developed technologies at its Homan location, about 10 miles west of Pattonsburg. The company started a water reuse project, at a cost of about $800,000, on an eight-barn portion of the farm. One barn houses about 1,100 hogs.

The system, modeled after processes used in municipal water treatment plants, was designed to clean wastewater so it could be reused for the hogs, Townsend said.

Premium Standard officials also presented what they called the internal recirculation process, in which waste is used for energy or converted into products such as fertilizers. The company is experimenting with different fertilizer pellet formulas, but the exact customer market has not been identified.

Townsend said Premium Standard, which has 17 farms in Missouri, expects to combine the new processes in different ways at each farm, depending upon the results.

Bryan emphasized the preliminary nature of Premium Standard's technology research.

"This is just beginning," Bryan said, "and the company will have to address the other farms."

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