Poultry Waste - A Future Water Problem?

US - State figures show that fields in Wilkes and Surry counties, typically fertilized with poultry waste, have high levels of phosphorus and copper, writes Monte Mitchell, JournalNow
calendar icon 22 January 2008
clock icon 2 minute read

Ron Howard, a soil conservationist in Wilkes for the federal government, said he hasn’t seen the state data but knows from doing waste- management plans with farmers that there are problems with putting chicken litter on the same fields for 40 years.

“Are we in a crisis? Probably not, but I think the warning bell has gone off and we need to heed it,” said Howard, the Wilkes district conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Howard said he supports the power-plant proposed by Fibrowatt as a solution to the region’s growing poultry-waste problem.

The state does not keep records specific to fields fertilized with poultry litter. But the N.C. Department of Agriculture’s agronomical laboratory in Raleigh tracks soil quality in cornfields and pasture land, where chicken litter is typically used as fertilizer in Wilkes and Surry counties.

More detail at: JournalNow

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