“It isn’t easy being green,” were the words uttered by Kermit the frog when he sang about his life as a Muppet, but the phrase can also describe the challenges of operating a poultry complex in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Nutrient enrichment of the Chesapeake Bay has led to changes in the ecology of the bay and a long-term effort by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), industry and the surrounding states to clean up the bay. Poultry operations, like Tyson Foods’ Glen Allen, Va., complex, have been asked to step up in both their live and plant operations and take the lead in reducing nutrients that may make it to the bay.

The Glen Allen plant is 15 miles from downtown Richmond, Va., just north of I-295 in an area that once was rural but is rapidly becoming suburban. Glen Allen was one of Tyson’s first complexes to implement an Environmental Management System (EMS). According to the U.S. EPA, an EMS is a set of processes and practices that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency. Just as a HACCP plan provides a framework for evaluating and controlling food safety risks, an EMS provides a framework for evaluating and managing an operation’s impact on the environment.

Tim Crum, environmental manager at the Glen Allen complex, said the process of developing the EMS resulted in some objectives being set for all parts of the complex. Plant management established several objectives for the processing operation. Some of the key objectives are to meet the plant’s new effluent standards for wastewater, reduce bio-solids (sludge) production and move away from land application, reduce solid waste production and increase recycling, and increase employees’ environmental awareness so that they realize how their actions can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Tightest effluent limits 

The Glen Allen plant fully treats and discharges around 900,000 gallons per day of wastewater, and it has an outstanding compliance history. An unnamed tributary of the Chickahominy River is the recipient of the treated effluent. The Chickahominy is a protected river, which is considered to be “benthic impaired” because of phosphorous and high pH. A damn 50 miles downstream from Glen Allen forms a reservoir that provides drinking water for Newport News, Va. After the reservoir, the Chickahominy flows into the James River which empties into the Chesapeake Bay. As part of the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) process for the Chickahominy River basin, Tyson has been required to reduce the phosphorous concentration in its effluent from an already low 0.3 parts per million (ppm) to 0.1 ppm. City tap water purchased for use at the plant has a phosphorous concentration greater than 0.1 ppm.

The Glen Allen plant processes around 160,000 head per day of 6 pound birds. At the old phosphorous standard of 0.3 ppm, the plant discharged an annual total of 1,280 pounds of phosphorous. The new standard, which will go into effect in November of 2009, will reduce this to 409 pounds per year, or less than what a few dozen bags of lawn fertilizer would contain. This is the tightest effluent limit for any Tyson plant.

Reducing relatively small concentrations of phosphorous in water to even lower levels is an expensive proposition. In addition to the phosphorous that is removed by biological treatment, Tyson will have to rely on other measures. Alum is added to the treated wastewater to precipitate out some of the residual phosphorous and the current tertiary sand filtration unit is being replaced with a new deep-bed, continuous-backwash, tertiary filter system designed by Reid Engineering to filter out more phosphorous. The new sand filter project is budgeted at around $1.5 million. Tyson estimates the cost to remove each additional pound of phosphorous from the wastewater at $380. This factors in the amortized capital cost, the cost of alum and the additional cost for sludge removal.  So, removing the additional phosphorous could cost over $330,000 annually.

Glen Allen’s nitrogen limit is being reduced from an already low 12.0 ppm to 6.0 ppm. The plan for further denitrification of the wastewater calls for additional staged aeration tanks to be built. Crum said that the plans for this have not been finalized, but the project will cost around $3.0 million.

To keep the cost of enhancements to the wastewater treatment system to a minimum, the plant has made strides in reducing its water usage. “Our plant started a water conservation initiative where managers broke into teams and implemented ways to reduce water usage.  It was good how our plant management used all of our team members to get them involved with water conservation,” Crum said. In addition to reducing water usage, the plant is also reusing around 200,000 gallons of water each day in the plant and on the grounds.

Composting bio-solids

Management at the Glen Allen plant has set a goal to move away from land application of wastewater treatment bio-solids because of the uncertain future for this practice and its cost. Accomplishing this goal, while increasing the level of biological treatment to meet tighter effluent limits, could require some creative thinking. Work is occurring on a pilot project with McGill Environmental Systems to compost the bio-solids produced at Glen Allen.

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) skimmings from the Glen Allen plant have been rendered in the past. DAF skimmings have high water content, and the value of the rendered product is less than the cost of rendering, so a tipping fee is typically charged to render DAF skimmings.

Bio-solids or sludge from the biological treatment basins at Glen Allen were collected and pumped to a lagoon for storage prior to land application. The bio-solids were land applied twice a year. Bio-solids are now being added back to the wastewater prior to the DAF tank. The DAF removes much of the nutrients in the bio-solids along with the rest of the DAF skimmings. The DAF skimmings are trucked daily to a McGill facility where they are added to dryer carbon-based materials, like paper, leaves, poultry litter, ground pallets or wood products, for composting. If this project is successful, all of Glen Allen’s bio-solids will wind up in landscape mulch and no sludge will be stored in the lagoon, eliminating a potential odor issue.

Creating a sanctuary

Old wastewater treatment ponds on the Glen Allen plant’s property are full of water and provide a home for ducks, geese and a number of aquatic animals. Crum saw the back lot portion of the plant’s 40-acre site as a natural resource which could be improved. He asked Tyson management if the plant could apply for membership in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ACSP). “I presented the idea of joining the program and working towards certification to our plant and complex managers and they were enthusiastic about the program,” he said. “No other Tyson facilities are doing it, but there are similar conservation programs out there that some manufacturing facilities do. We are unique in that we are in a formerly rural area that is becoming increasingly suburbanized, so anything we do with our approximately 40 acres to create a more naturalized property will go a long way in impressing our current and future neighbors.”

ACSP is an education and certification program that can help businesses protect the environment while enhancing their bottom line. The program offers information and guidance to help participants implement an environmental management plan that improves efficiency, conserves resources, and promotes conservation efforts. 

In addition to all of the environmental initiatives at the processing plant, Tyson also has a phosphorous reduction program for the live-production operations at its Glen Allen complex. Tyson is working with other Virginia poultry integrators to reduce the amount of phosphorous in the broiler litter on its contract growers’ farms by 30 percent from baseline levels. Poultry companies in Virginia voluntarily accepted this goal in response to a request from the state. Phytase enzymes are added to the feed so that phosphorus bound up in cereal grains can be utilized by the birds and phosphorous supplementation of the feed can be limited.

Tyson management has gone company-wide with EMS for its operations. The company is going a step further by moving forward with comprehensive Environmental, Health, Safety Management Systems (EHSMS) for all operations by December 2008.

Crum said that Tyson’s interest in protecting the environment is good business for two reasons. “Not only could these projects have a positive impact on environmental issues, but they also can be a cost savings,” he said. “Whenever you become more efficient, you waste less, which positively affects the bottom line. A cardboard recycling program plays to space and quality of life issues by reducing waste to overcrowded landfills, and it also reduces our refuse bill. An energy audit that finds ways to run processing equipment more efficiently reduces dependence on electricity/fuel which decreases the amount of energy purchased. Water conservation efforts are becoming increasingly important, so the less water we use, the less we affect our community's supply; yet it also saves us money.” At Tyson’s Glen Allen complex, it isn’t always easy to be green, but sometimes being green can save green.

 

More information on composting bio-solids is available at www.WATTpoultry.com/compost.aspx

 

More information on Virginia poultry integrators’ pledge to reduce the phosphorous concentration in poultry litter is available at www.WATTpoultry.com/phosphorous.aspx

 

More information on the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program is available at www.WATTpoultry.com/Audubon.aspx