The annual
meeting of the PWT in
PWT co-chairs:
Ellen Harrison, CWMI and Keith Severson, CCE of Chenango County.
Attendees
discussed their interests. Those in
attendance were:
Brian Aldrich,
Bob Aman, Aman
Farm
Jean Bonhotal,
Cornell Waste Management Institute
Nellie Brown,
Tro Bui,
Jeff Cooper,
Onondaga
Mark Darling,
Phillip Dickson,
Leo Dickson & Sons Farm
Joseph Dreels, NYS Dept of Ag and Markets
Robert Eller,
CCE/Private
Kathryn Evans,
CCE of
Gary Feinland, NYS DEC, Solid Waste, Reduction & Recycling
Shirley Ann
Felder,
William
Francisco, Leo Dickson & Sons
Douglas Goodale, SUNY Cobleskill
Jeff Gulliver,
Mapleton Ag Transport
Ellen Harrison,
Cornell Waste Management Institute
Anthony Hay,
Thomas Herlihy, RT Solutions
Jenna Hicks,
Cayuga
Jim Hotaling, Cayuga
John Idowu,
Allison Jack,
Jeff LeBlanc, WeCare Organics
Drew Lewis,
Brian Luton, Stones Throw Farm
Christina Mace,
James Marion,
NYS Dept. of Correctional Services, ENYCF, Division of Industries
Connie
Patterson, Patterson Farms
Van Petersen,
Marty Petrovic,
Ed Rowley, NYS
Dept of Ag & Markets
Sally Rowland,
NYS DEC, Solid Waste & Hazardous Materials
Mary Schwarz,
Cornell Waste Management Institute
Keith Severson,
CCE of
Ken Thomas,
Country Folk News
Marjorie Torelli,
David Wazenkewitz, NYS DEC, Region 7
Frederick Wishner, Aqualife Farms
Rick Zimmerman, NYS Dept of Ag &
Markets
Topics that
the group was interested in and discussed included:
How do food processing residuals and food
scrap and other diverse feedstocks fit into composting, especially on farms,
what are the rules, risks and benefits?;
Marketing of composts, better
understanding and promotion of compost properties such as increased soil
health, disease suppression, use in organic agriculture, quantifying benefits
of compost use;
Labeling and certification;
Use of compost in green buildings, in
erosion control;
Cooperative composting and digestion
among different farms and other organic sources;
Capturing the heat from composting;
Microbial ecology of composting
(including vermicomposting);
Renewing activity of NYSAR3
Organics council;
Composting to manage mortalities and
flesh residuals both routinely and in biohazard and disasters;
Use of chemical
additions in composting such as adding N;
Environmental impacts of compost use;
Use of manure as dairy barn bedding;
Degradable plastics in compost
Sally
Rowland, NYS DEC summarized the rules. Note that, regardless of exemptions, if
a facility causes pollution, it would come under regulation
The NYS Part 360
rule has 3 levels of regulation:
1.
Exemption (no permit).
Farmers have big exemptions. They can
dispose, process, treat, store etc anything
non-hazardous that is generated on the farm.
Activities of other generators are exempt (short of disposal) for
residuals generated on-site or on sites owned by same owner in same DEC
region. They could also take up to 1000
yards of off-site food waste a year under a registration (see below). Larger quantities of off site materials
require a permit.
Recognizable
food processing residuals are not food waste and are exempt. The rationale is that there is more potential
contamination in food waste (ie. from grocery stores
and feeding establishments). If the food
processing residuals are non-recognizable, they are not exempt and need
registration. Manure movement between farms is exempt can dispose of manure,
compost it or land apply it. Moving
manure off the farm where it is generated to a digester requires a permit (the
law did not anticipate disgestion, DEC is trying to fix that).
Less
than 3000 yards of yard waste is exempt.
2. Registration.
A form saying facility will meet conditions. 3-10,000 yards of yard waste
requires registration.
3. Full permit
(engineering report, public notice, etc). Required if taking food waste
>1000 yards and for any digester taking off-site material. Permit is for the
facility – specify type and quantity and area from which waste will come.
More than 10,000
yards of yard waste requires a permit.
Regional
digesters for manure - under the current regulations these require a permit
although regional composting facilities for manure do not. These facilities may
not require a permit in the revised regulations.
CAFO/food
processing waste - under the current regulations a CAFO farm that accepts food
processing waste is subject to criteria in both Part 360 and CAFO regulations
which may not be consistent. To fix, Part 360 will be revised to defer to CAFO
if the farm has an approved CNMP.
Food processing waste (fpw) storage - under the 2003 regulations, non-recognizable food processing waste can be stored at a farm, under a registration, in a manure storage facility as long as the non-recognizable fpw does not exceed 10% of the contents of the storage facility. The language in the regs is confusing and will be fixed in the next revision.
Ensure, that feedstock is clean and that
chemical quality is what you want. Variability of food waste can be a problem.
Pathogen kill – a concern with post consumer. Need
background info on what it does and does not kill. Dept. of Corrections got a
statement from chief medical officer and will share with CWMI. CWMI might write something up.
Degradable
plastics – some are not
fully degradable but break up into pieces, they may concentrate endocrine
disrupting chemicals and other lipophilic
organics. These can also go airborne.
There
are some truly degradable plastics that fully decompose. Cornell is converting
one dining hall to bio-based materials.
Compost use in organic production
Organic
certification does not apply to compost, but compost can be approved for use in
organic production. Go through OMRI and/or NOFA.
Weeds
Can
aquatic weeds be put into a digester? They can be composted, S end of L
Champlain and several other lakes in NYS are composting weeds.
Invasive species
– can they be composted (ie. will vegetative and seed
reproduction be controlled)? Some
Cornell research on large-scale dairy farm manure-based composts showed that
weed seeds were effectively eliminated.
Small-scale composting that does not get hot is not likely to control
weeds.
Composting
of invasive species – has not yet reached the radar. Most compost producers would not want the
liability. Giant hogweed is a recent
invasive species effecting the northeast, the plant
causes very bad rashes.
Marketing – requires
educated consumers. Expect 3 year
learning curve.
Maturity
is an important quality. Maybe a label like “aged at
least 90 days”.
Though desired quality depends on end
use. Some vineyards,
for example, want immature compost for weed control.
Concern
that if you claim disease suppression, may have to register as bio-pesticide
with EPA and NYS DEC and the required toxicity testing is very expensive. Also the variability of composts would be an
issue.
Can you make money composting? Don’t get too excited about tip fees for
off-site residuals, keep costs down. But tip fees help so long as you can move
the materials. Marketing is not a
general farm expertise. Turf construction is a large market. How to compete
with free municipal materials? Try to
include in specs
Inoculants
don’t change what the community is and will be.
Adding N is
being done successfully in some high carbon composts.
Reported
by Rick Zimmerman, Ed Rowley, NYS DAM.
A
law passed in 2003 to exempt compost from the rules for fertilizers was vetoed,
DAM put together working group to identify industry needs. The goal is to ensure continued protection
for consumers while encouraging use of compost as a fertilizer. Proposed rules
were developed that exempt compost consisting of animal manure, vegetative
matter and bedding from fee and license requirements. They also require registration and some basic
testing and labeling.
Discussion:
Is there a regulatory definition of vegetative matter? How would food wastes be
treated – probably not allowed. Since many farm
compost producers are taking food wastes, can the regs
be modified to address this? Need a definition of vegetable matter. Could it include incidental non-vegetative
materials in food wastes from restaurants, grocery stores? How about whey,
milking parlor wastes, etc? SEND DAM a full spectrum of what is
composted on farms. These may need to be
addressed in a revision to the rule.
Other wastes
composted on farms: Grocery store, restaurants, cafeteria/institutional pre and
post consumer, whey, curds, processing wastes, fruits, vegetables, grains,
dairy processing, food processing, off-spec or spoiled foods, dairy farm wastes
from tanks, etc..
CWMI is working
with a team to look at the results of compost use in these settings. Dairy and poultry composts are being
applied. A question was raised about the
potential impact of nutrients resulting from the landscape construction since
compost would comprise about one third or more of the soil.
CWMI
has two projects beginning to evaluate use of manure solids as bedding. A
number of NYS farms are trying it with apparent success.
Attendees
reported: One farm was using paper sludge, then saw drop in somatic cell count
(SSC) when changed to dried manure for 4 years.
Then got some spikes due to teat end damage. Changed milking machine
that will do less damage. Have seen a slight increase in Johne’s at one farm when changed to bedding with DMS. Need religious cleaning of stalls.
Another farm
tried bedding with post-digested solids.
Consider whether use of digested manure and changes in cells resulting
from digestion would make solids less suitable for bedding.
Composting mortalities
CWMI is working
with NYS Dept. of Transportation and others on composting of road killed
deer. Research into pathogen reduction
and outreach to state and local highway departments, including production of a
DVD, are part of the project.
Outreach activities
A new series of Compost Fact Sheets
developed by CWMI are available for free on the CWMI WWW site (http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/Composting.html).
A revision to the On-farm Compost
Handbook published by NRAES is underway.
A CWMI proposal to NE SARE to convene
compost roundtables in NY and PA and to hold an advanced compost short course
is likely to be funded.