Waste Water residuals and land application

Robert HarrisSmithfield Packing CompanyTar Heel, NC

Tar Heel – a study

3 very different situations1) Davco – sanitary system

Handled as a liquid sludge to a POTW (publicly owned treatment works – i.e.. A city)

2) Conventional Activated Sludge Handled as a belt pressed sludge and sent to the public

landfill as a beneficial use solid

3) Anaerobic Basins Handled as a liquid sludge and spread on local farms

Davco – plant bathrooms

Generates 40,000 gallons of sludge (liquid) per month on average.

Subject to 503 regulations because of “human” factor– 40 CFR 503–Disposal of Sewage Sludge

Domestic sewage biosolids

Want to avoid “503” and stay industrial user

Handled by Sewage hauler

Not dewatered – no capacity for belt wash water

Water cannot enter Activated Sludge system Plant Water Re-use Handled by local Domestic WWT plant (PWC

– Fayetteville NC)

Conventional Activated Sludge solids

5MM gallons under aeration Cannot land apply – 2 windows for Land

Application in this area and we generate year round

Installed a 2 meter belt press (BMP)– Average 120,000 gallons of wasted activated

sludge per day– Attain working average of 13% solids with peaks

in the 15% area

Hauler

Utilize our Licensed Land Application hauler to take to local landfill– Get excellent rates based on tonnage– Get excellent rates because it activates their

domestic trash in a biogas to energy process that they have going

– Not technically recycling – but certainly the next best thing.

Opportunities for Land Application

We have looked into land application on non farming sites and there is some opportunity– Financially this is a bad decision

Poundage would go down and lose preferential tipping fees.

Costs would actually go up, even though we were hauling less loads to the landfill

Landfill will NOT adjust because they desire our sludge for activation of domestic trash

Anaerobic lagoons

Huge storage capacity (15MM gallons each – 2 basins)– Have the ability to hold solids so that we can land

apply during the farmer’s “window”– Hauler is able to negotiate excellent pricing

because we operate on HIS schedule.

Improvements

Centrifuge – Solids and grease recovery– Huge money generator (1.7MM annually)– Solids have decreased to the degree we will

move from twice a year land app to a single event saving an additional $120-150K per year

Interesting facts

Hauler is full service – Provides all monitoring and testing– Provides a bound state report at the end of each

application year– All farms are permitted to the hauler– 2 – 4 Million gallons applied per event

Potential issues to consider

We have no permitted fields of our own– Positive – no public hearings, postings, etc with

“Smithfield” on them– Negative – we are limited to haulers that provide

this service – We are responsible for everything – you CANNOT

sign away your responsibilities Spills Errors in annual report

Questions?

757-613-1339 – Direct line anytime

Buddy Harris

910-862-5248 – Jeff Musselwhite

757-356-6714 – Roland (Rocky) Beem – regulatory questions