I am writing in response to Dr. Jeri Berc’s letter of Nov. 8, “Bioenergy project is disastrous for environment.”
Dr. Berc has impressive credentials and should be qualified to judge the environmental impact of the Bioenergy Innovation Center's anaerobic digestion facility. I was disappointed to see that the letter lacked understanding of the anaerobic digestion process and of the environmental threat posed by poultry processing waste.
The letter criticizes “extraction of wealth from a resource [manure] that could be beneficially used if composted and applied to land.” Responsible land application of manure is a good use of this organic fertilizer, and the Bioenergy facility will use little manure. Instead, it will manage poultry processing and hatchery waste, which is produced in the thousands of tons annually on Delmarva, in quantities exceeding what can be applied to farmland. This material is now processed and stored by national waste management companies in large, open-top tanks, then applied to soils at rates more consistent with waste disposal than with fertilization, so its high-nutrient content degrades our waters. Reducing the mass of this material greatly to a dry, odor-free, easily transported solid product will substantially improve the water quality of our tributaries and bays.
Dr. Berc is also concerned about this facility’s impact on climate. This is a critical issue. The letter, however, greatly misrepresents these impacts. The huge quantity of waste, if not further processed, will naturally degrade to release greenhouse gases, including a considerable amount of methane. As a wetland ecologist with a background in sediment biogeochemistry, I know the anaerobic digestion process well. In natural environments, organic matter decomposes to methane in the absence of oxygen (under anaerobic conditions, as found in landfills and aquatic sediments), releasing it into the atmosphere. The Bioenergy facility will also degrade the waste anaerobically, but it will capture the methane to be used for energy, so that it will be converted almost entirely to carbon dioxide. This methane will also replace fracked natural gas (a fossil fuel), with no net increase in overall carbon releases. This represents a twofold win. Anaerobic digestion reduces nutrient pollution and methane greenhouse gas emissions.
The chicken industry has an enormous impact on Delmarva, good and bad. Without it, family farmers could not operate profitably because they would have to compete with huge agricultural conglomerates, and our region would become dominated by housing developments instead of farms. A major part of our economy would disappear. While poultry waste problems are substantial, they have been addressed increasingly over the years. The use of anaerobic digestion to reduce poultry waste is a major technological step to further this progress, and the Bioenergy plant will bring this benefit to Delmarva. I look forward to seeing it succeed.
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