State rules on spreading food processing waste as fertilizer don't give a clear picture of what is being spread, according to the Beaver Water District's environmental manager.
Both the state and the company spreading the most waste in Arkansas contend otherwise.
"They're playing by the rules. Everything I've talked to you about is by the book," said James McCarty, environmental quality manager for the water district, which supplies most of the drinking water used in Northwest Arkansas.
However, the level of phosphorus and other nutrients in food processing waste can vary widely depending on what the facility it came from made that day; state-required testing is not detailed enough to account for that, he said. The nutrients can cause algae blooms and degrade water quality, he said.
Waste being disposed of by land application ranges from blood and liquefied offal from poultry processing plants to residues from an ice cream maker, state records show.
The state Division of Environmental Quality's rules for land applications are among the best in the country, replied Denali Water Solutions in a statement. The Russellville-based environmental services company has 35 active fields in the Beaver Lake watershed.
Denali is one of two companies with active state permits for land application of industrial waste with permits in the Beaver Lake watershed, and the other is a locally owned farm, according to state records.
In 2023, the company applied about 10,000 gallons per acre in those fields, or about one-third of an inch of liquid on each acre, according to the statement. Denali and other land applicators contract with private landowners to apply the liquefied food waste as fertilizer.
"The rules around land application of food processing residuals in Arkansas are among the most progressive and effective in the U.S.," Denali's statement said. "Indeed, we often use best practices developed in Arkansas in other parts of the country because Arkansas is at the forefront.
"The effectiveness of the state's system is apparent in that Arkansas has both a strong food and agriculture industry, as well as some of the most beautiful lands and waters in the world. This has been made possible through regular updates to the rules to reflect changes in science and policy. Denali has long been part of developing and implementing these updates, and we will continue to do so."
REMAINING DOUBTS
The next report on the state's water, compiled by Environmental Quality, will list Beaver Lake as impaired for drinking water, McCarty said.
"It's a little warning flag that says we need to pay closer attention," he said Friday.
The state bases such ratings on tests for algae and water clarity. The district and its partners, including Beaver Watershed Alliance, have plans to protect and maintain water quality, he said.
Whether land application is a contributing factor to this impairment is unknown, he said, but more detailed data would answer whether such applications are having an effect.
"This is the stuff the waste treatment plants don't want," McCarty said of the watery waste spread by land application.
The state requires one sample a year from each plant to determine the waste's baseline level of nutrients, he said. Even a good-faith random sample of the waste cannot give a good estimate of what's in each day's load of waste, he said.
Some loads will be 10 times higher or more in their concentrations of nutrients, he said.
"The lack of knowledge is a concern to us," McCarty said.
Becky Roark is executive director of the Beaver Watershed Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting water quality in the lake. She and McCarty said in separate interviews that land applicators, businesses and other interested parties in the watershed do discuss issues such as land application. She said in a phone interview May 3 that the publicly available data on what is applied from processing plants does not give a detailed, clear picture.
"Poultry litter is pretty straightforward," Roark said. "You know what the phosphorus levels are. That's not so clear with industrial waste. It can vary quite a bit from application to application."
But Denali's statement said the nutrient content of residuals from each food processing facility is typically very consistent over time and does not vary widely.
Denali regularly tests food processing residuals and the soils those wastes are applied to, the company's statement said. Such testing by the company is key to successful land application, according to the statement. The company works with third-party, certified laboratories to test residuals and soils and shares those results with state agencies.
Application of the fertilizer is tailored to each field and for each crop, according to Denali's statement.
"We apply material so that the nutrient level is at or below what crop plants will use as they grow," the company said. "We also abide by setbacks from streams and lakes and factor in other variables like the slope of the land.
"We calculate that the value we provide to farmers is often in the hundreds of dollars per acre per year," Denali's statement said. "Not only do we provide nutrients that offset chemical fertilizer use, we also often see improvements in soil health and water holding capacity in the fields in which we work."
The state environmental division also issued a statement about its testing of land application. State permits require land applicators to sample both the waste and the soils to which the waste is applied to check nutrient loads.
In addition, each land application permit includes requirements for the protection of the waters of the state, including, but not limited to, operator and staff training, operational restrictions on slopes, weather monitoring and field buffers to curb runoff and erosion, the division's statement said.
THE PROCESS INVOLVED
Ronnie Bell operates a cattle farm in Madison County, between Hindsville and Wesley. He also maintains fishing ponds on the same land, the largest one covering eight acres.
Land application is not impairing any ponds on his property, "so common sense would tell you it's not hurting water 50 miles away," he said in a phone interview Thursday. Bell has allowed land application on his property for more than 10 years, he said.
"My drinking water comes from Beaver Lake as well," Bell said.
Denali applies the fertilizer with a large, three-wheeled tractor-like rig with injectors behind the points of plows, Bell said. The process then uses large rollers to smooth out the field. This method leaves the fertilizer under the ground. Unlike chicken litter as fertilizer, which is spread on top of fields, this covering of soil keeps the fertilizer from running off, Bell said.
The contract with Denali means the fields getting the land application are fertilized at no cost to him, Bell said. This compares to the $2,800 per application to fertilize the same fields by paying a commercial fertilizer company for the chemical fertilizer and the use of the equipment to apply it, he said.
Asked about any disadvantages, Bell said there are no bad smells or any other such problems.
"It roughs up the ground some, but they do a good job with their rollers, and, if I call them and need them to, they come back and level it out again," he said.
The biggest disadvantage comes from the rocks the process occasionally turns up in his fields, he said, but this is minor.
"Save me $15,000 to $18,000 a year on fertilizer costs, and I'll spend a few more minutes dealing with rocks," he said.
Denali tests the soil in his pastures to make sure the right balance of nutrients is there, he said.
LACK OF ALTERNATIVES
McCarty acknowledged in an email Thursday that alternatives to land application are few and expensive.
"This is a question we are still trying to answer," his email said when asked for alternatives. "I think that it is obvious that this practice of land application represents a cost savings to the food processing industry over traditional or more advanced water treatment technologies. But I will also acknowledge that, in many cases, it may be the only feasible alternative. The waste material must be disposed of in some way, but has several characteristics that make it problematic for typical disposal scenarios."
Besides a high nutrient content, food processing waste has high "biological oxygen demand," a scientific measure of how much oxygen bacteria would need to break down a particular type of waste. The measure is used to determine whether a waste can be successfully handled by a wastewater treatment plant. Most food processing waste either cannot or greatly increases the time and cost to treat it, he said.
"Second, the material is liquid, which means that the landfill is going to frown on disposing of it there as landfills are for solid materials," McCarty's email said.
There are more advanced treatment options, but "these advanced options come with advanced technology and price tags," according to the email. "One such process, anaerobic digestion in a biogas production facility was recently proposed for our area but shot down by the Benton County Planning Board for various reasons."
"One of the major costs associated with disposal of liquid materials is transportation," McCarty's email said. "In chicken litter, as chemical fertilizer prices have gone up in recent years, we have seen litter being transported further out of our area. With this liquid waste, a drying operation could further concentrate it.
"Closing the loop and applying these nutrients to farmland where corn and other feed grains are grown for chicken feed is the most ideal situation as you are putting the nutrients back where they came from and where they are needed most. This would require a relatively dry product and probably some further economic incentives."