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Dairy farmers tour municipal wastewater system

Sam Warp gives dairy producers a tour of the Marshfield, WI wastewater treatment facility

A municipal wastewater superintendent says the chemical-free process they use would work for large farms.  Sam Warp from Marshfield, Wisconsin says they made a big change last year.  “It was built in 2000, and it was designed with a chemical treatment to remove the phosphorus and in June of last year, we switched over to an all-natural process just using natural bacteria and protozoa to treat the wastewater, and we add no chemicals now.”

Warp says the economy of scale is what might prevent one or more farms from building this type of system compared to an anaerobic digester.  “It would take a large operation.  You know, we have 20-thousand residents plus the people in the country, so it would take a large number of cows to duplicate that, but yes, that same technology could be used on the dairy farm.”

Warp says one or more farms might make a treatment plant more practical.

Solids from the Marshfield plant are applied to farmland in the fall.  He says the Marshfield plant was able to convert to their chemical-free system for less than $50 dollars in hardware, leading to a savings of 147-thousand dollars a year.  Their phosphorus discharge is also now nine times lower than their permit limits.

About 50 farmers toured the Marshfield wastewater plant as part of an event hosted by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin and Discovery Farms.

 

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