MANKATO - The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) invites public comment until 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 25 on an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) being prepared for a proposed 3,000-cow dairy northwest of St. Peter.
High Island Dairy LLC, owned by Davis Family Dairies, LLC, proposes to build a total confinement barn off 348th Street, about two-thirds of a mile southwest of County Road 8 in Lake Prairie Township.
The facility would use anaerobic digestion to break down manure and waste water along with waste water and sludge from the Le Sueur Cheese Co. The process would create methane gas to use as energy at the site.
After digestions, manure solids would be separated from the waste stream and used as cow bedding. Liquid manure and solids not needed for bedding would be stored in a covered, earthen basin on site until it is applied as fertilizer to cropland annually after harvest.
The dairy would generate 32.85 million gallons of manure a year. The on-site basin would have 15 months of storage capacity for manure and waste water.
Based on a computer modeling study, the dairy, which would use 45 million gallons of water a year, would comply with state air quality standards, with odors considered faint to moderate. There are 13 homes located within a mile of the proposed facility.
Some tile drainage and treated storm water from the site would discharge to Judicial Ditch 13, then to the Rush River.
Comments and questions on the EAW may go to Charles Peterson, MPCA, 520 Lafayette Rd. N., St. Paul, MN 55155. Call 651-757-2856 or e-mail charles.peterson@state.mn.us
Permit comments on a discharge/disposal permit must be given in writing to George Schwint at George.schwint@state.mn.us