BIOMASS HUB

Tina Casey of Cleantechnica.com reports that an industrial hog producers, Premium Standard Farms, Inc., was slapped last week with an $11 million fine for inflicting “relentless and extreme” clouds of pig manure odor upon several families near a gigantic factory farm in Berlin, Missouri.  The $11 million award against Premium went to just seven families, and the company still has to face 250 more plaintiffs who are waiting for their day in court.

The company processes about 200,000 hogs per year, generating 83 million gallons of manure and liquid waste yearly for the past eleven years.  The manure and waste all goes into lake-sized lagoons and ends up spread over the company’s 4,300 acre compound, with predictable results.

According to the article, the EPA is encouraging the entire agricultural sector to switch to sustainable digester-based manure management through its  AgSTAR biogas program.  EPA’s AgSTAR website includes a directory of experienced biogas digester companies.

The full article is available here.

Image: Flickr/Paxie