The Michigan Lakes and Streams Association recently signed on with FLOW (For Love of Water) to ask EGLE to reconsider a permit for a biodigester. We have growing concerns about the impacts of these digesters on our water.
For context on this issue, here is a passage from the article, FLOW Coalition submits Fremont digester comments:
“Anaerobic digesters use bacteria to decompose organic waste (such as commercial food waste and factory farm sewage) and generate biogas. The byproduct of this process is a concentrated sludge called ‘digestate.’ The digestate – often full of heavy metals and biological hazards – is held in massive cesspits, then sprayed on fields as ‘fertilizer.’
“But it doesn’t stay there.
“In addition to creating the noxious, intolerable odors described by resident Kathy Morrison and others, the digestate makes its way through field drains and runoff and into lakes, streams, groundwater – and residential water wells.”
MLSA will provide more information on this issue as we continue to focus on the protection of our inland waterways.