|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Originally published by The New Lede
A proposal to build a mega-manure digester in a small Washington state community is sparking uproar among citizens who say the project to convert waste from dairy cows into fuel will add to the region’s already significant pollution problems.
At issue is a proposed manure digester project called Sunnyside RNG, LLC, that would be one of the largest in the US.
The company behind the project — Oregon-based Pacific Ag, a crop residue harvest and supply company — says the project will help reduce pollution generated by area concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and will boost local jobs and energy output.
But critics say Pacific Ag’s proposal is misleading and they fear the facility will do more to harm the region than help it.
“This will cause farms to increase the number of cows and we strongly believe that the concentration in the lower Yakima Valley is already too high,” said Jean Mendoza, executive director of Friends of Toppenish Creek, a Washington state nonprofit focused on water protection and stricter oversight of agriculture. “People who live there are very unhappy about the idea of having what would be a natural gas processing plant in the middle of their city.”
The project is emblematic of a broader nationwide fight. Such digesters are increasingly common in the US to deal with the massive amounts of waste generated at large-scale livestock and dairy farms. There are an estimated 394 manure-based digesters operating in the US now, with more than 70 under construction, representing a 55% increase over the past decade.
The selling point of such projects is their ability to reduce water pollution and climate-warming emissions — especially methane — associated with animal waste. Manure digesters reduced greenhouse gases by more than 13 million metric tons in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“By safely aggregating and beneficially reusing regional manure, this new facility will help address systemic challenges of emissions, odor and pollution stemming from the region’s manure management challenges,” Pacific Ag chief development officer Harrison Pettit said.
But critics say the facilities themselves emit air pollution and incentivize growth at already packed and polluting CAFOs by monetizing manure. And the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) this week paused all government loan guarantees to such projects through the end of the year while the department investigates loan delinquency, underperformance and other issues at digester facilities.
Pacific Ag is waiting on a final air permit approval from the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency, which covers the Lower Yakima Valley region where Sunnyside is located. The area is a dairy CAFO hotbed, home to more than a third of all Washington’s dairy cows.
Air emissions
Pettit said the facility, which would be on 50 acres just south of Sunnyside, Washington, will produce about 650,000 British thermal units (MMBtu) of renewable natural gas (RNG) annually from about 900,000 tons of manure from over 43,000 regional dairy cows.
RNG, which requires some refining after the digester, is used in some vehicles and as a natural gas substitute. Sunnyside’s estimated annual RNG output would be more than three times that of the current largest manure digester facility, BC Organics in Wisconsin, which produces under 600,000 MMBtu annually, according to its website. Pettit said Sunnyside RNG will also bring the region 30 full-time jobs.
“The process will capture 95% of the methane that would otherwise have been emitted from manure lagoons — this is about 30% of the lower Valley’s manure,” he said. “The equivalent of removing around 70,000 vehicles per year.”
“The process will capture 95% of the methane that would otherwise have been emitted from manure lagoons — this is about 30% of the lower Valley’s manure.” – Harrison Pettit, Pacific Ag
The Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency issued a preliminary approval for the project in February. The agency acknowledged the facility will emit greenhouse gases and some toxic air pollutants but at levels that deem it a “minor” air emissions source, which means it faces less stringent regulations than a major air pollutant emitter. It also determined no environmental impact assessment is required.
“The facility is deemed as an area source (minor source) based on potential emissions of criteria air pollutants and hazardous air pollutants that fall below the thresholds of a major source,” wrote the air agency.
However, Kingsly McConnell, a staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety and Yakima region resident, said Pacific Ag is “severely underestimating the emissions and cumulative impacts that would come from the digesters. And the permit is relying on inaccurate data or outdated data.”
As part of the application, the company needs to show how the facility will add to this background pollution and the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency used data from 2014 to 2017 to estimate current levels of particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) and ozone in the region.
“This does not accurately reflect increases in emissions from a variety of sources in the last 10 years,” Mendoza said, adding that more recent data shows much higher levels of particulate matter than what was cited in the application. Last year, the American Lung Association named the Yakima area the eighth most polluted in the nation for short-term particulate matter pollution.
In addition, for several toxic pollutants, including PM2.5, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, Pacific Ag’s annual air emissions estimates put it just barely under federal Clean Air Act thresholds, which would trigger additional regulations.
“We’re talking about razor-thin margins,” said McConnell, who pointed out that the application does not take leaks into account.
Scientific studies point out that digesters can leak up to 14% of the methane it aims to capture. For example, BC Organics, the nation’s current largest manure digester facility, emitted 4,921 metric tons of methane in 2024, at least in part due to a leak at the facility.
“The permit is relying on inaccurate data or outdated data.” – Kingsly McConnell, Center for Food Safety
Marc Thornsbury, the executive director of the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency, said the 2014 to 2017 was used because the air monitoring equipment in Sunnyside was upgraded to federal standards in 2023 and “the quantity of acceptable data collected is not yet sufficient to establish a background estimate specific to the Lower Yakima Valley area.”
“It is worth noting more recent data does not guarantee the best available information as it may be incomplete, insufficient in quantity, or fail to meet validation requirements for use in developing background concentrations,” he added.
Pettit said the company is following all local, state and federal requirements, adding that leaks were not included in their air emissions estimate as it’s not required in the permit.
“While some leakage is possible, it is in our economic interests to capture and use as much as possible – it’s the input for the product that we sell,” he said.
Thornsbury said there is no estimate on when the final permit decision will be, but that the agency will “thoroughly review the comments provided before coming to a final decision.”
Name calling
A late March public hearing over Sunnyside RNG only added to its controversy. A Pacific Ag representative, Kipp Curtis, was texting during the meeting and an attendee took pictures of the text exchange.
“I’ve never seen so many uneducated people throwing around ‘facts,’ also never seen so many men with purses,” Curtis wrote.
It is unclear who Curtis was texting with, but the other person had written “this bitch pisses me off,” prior to Curtis’ text about the community.
Sunnyside’s mayor Vicky Frausto posted the pictures of the text exchange to Facebook.
“You do not get to come into our city, push a project of this scale, fail to inform residents, and then mock the very people you expect to live with the consequences,” she wrote in a statement. “You owe this community an apology. And we are not backing down.”
Sunnyside is 83% Hispanic and has more than 18% of residents living in poverty, which is 75% higher than the national average. “For decades decisions were made without us at the table,” Frausto wrote. “When we demand accountability we are labeled the problem.”
Pettit did not respond to questions about the text messages. In a previous press release, Curtis said the company will “build and operate a plant that will make the Sunnyside community proud.”
Digester federal loan pause
The Sunnyside RNG fight comes as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) this week extended its moratorium on loans for anaerobic digesters — many of which are issued for large-scale farms that turn animal waste into gas — through the end of 2026 due to “persistent and escalating concerns.”
The directive this week extended an earlier pause announced in January that halted federal loan guarantees for new anaerobic digester projects due to high loan delinquency and project failures.
In the original directive, the USDA cited $102.6 million in delinquent loans for anaerobic digesters but did not name the companies in delinquency.
An analysis by The New Lede of the USDA’s Lender Lens portal showed four anaerobic digester loans in delinquency that total $102.6 million — with $100.1 million of the delinquent loans belonging to BC Organics, which is between 181 and 360 days delinquent on the loans that were originally for more than $104 million combined.
Featured image: USDA