As a longtime Seaford resident and a front-line environmentalist, I’ve been dumbfounded by a few others’ interpretations of the environmental impacts of the Bioenergy Innovation Center expansion.
In full disclosure, I am now a BIC employee. But I have spent more than 35 years producing and discharging the cleanest water possible from wastewater treatment plants I have managed, including for the City of Seaford. I understand the importance of environmental controls and have the utmost respect for environmental regulation.
The Bioenergy Innovation Center plans to incorporate anaerobic digestion as an added upgrade to the already existing facility. Anaerobic digestion is not a new, untested technology. In fact, I have been training operators on how to operate systems for over 20 years. There are several in use on the Eastern Shore today, primarily in the wastewater treatment field. So, I am surprised by the public comment that questions the great economic and environmental benefits of anaerobic digestion.
What is new and innovative is the application of this technology to recycle other organic materials into a renewable resource in support of Delaware’s family farms. This proven technology will not only produce renewable natural gas and soil amendments, but it also simultaneously creates cleaner air, water and soil for Delaware – reducing greenhouse gas emissions and recycling organic materials, an important step toward zero-waste goals.
The existing facility is currently permitted to produce over 30 kilotons per year of quality compost, composed of the very same waste that will go to anaerobic digestion. There is high demand for our nutrient-rich compost product, and we have consistently sold out of material every year. The wonderful thing is that even with the new anaerobic digester, we will continue to produce organic soil amendments benefitting farmers and consumers throughout Sussex County.
In the past 25 years, our company has built 250 anaerobic digesters around Europe and manages 140 of them. We have an excellent safety and environmental record working in communities where they are located.
I would not support this project if I didn’t believe in its mission and goals. We’re trying to improve the place where my family and I live and call home.
I urge you to look beyond statements made by those who would mischaracterize the operation and purpose of the proposed anaerobic digester. The poultry industry is, after all, an economic driver in this region. The Bioenergy Innovation Center’s anaerobic digestion project will be an important asset not only for Seaford, but also for Sussex County and Delaware, showing that the poultry industry and environment can work well together.
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