PICTURE BUTTE, Alta. – If Kim Sutherland had her way, there would be workshops teaching farmers how to hire environmental consultants and engineers.
Those growing piles of manure across the Prairies are turning into an environmental consultant’s dream. Yet not all farmers are getting the advice they need. Many consultants have arrived from the oil patch with little understanding of agriculture.
“The companies don’t understand the kind of scrutiny that these sites get. There’s more scrutiny than what you get with upstream oil and gas,” she said.
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Sutherland, who holds degrees in hydrogeology and soil science, is one of a small group of consultants hanging out her shingle offering to advise people on how to set up an environmentally friendly intensive livestock operation.
She is familiar with the science of how ground water is affected by manure and how proper management converts it from a waste product to a valuable soil nutrient.
When called upon to act as an expert witness at a development hearing, she sees manure management plans submitted to municipalities that are inadequate even though well recognized environmental companies were hired to help write the report.
As protests against developments crop up almost every week, farmers have to be better prepared.
Rosemary Herbut-Fikus of Lethbridge, Alta., is working as a consultant to help people work through a development permit for an intensive livestock operation.
She sees herself as a regulatory interpreter who helps people understand the provincial water act or municipal bylaws.
Not only do people have to work through municipal bylaws, they must abide by local health authorities’ rules.
“They have to understand this is a whole process,” she said.
Holding a degree in environmental public policy, Herbut-Fikus started her business in January and has worked in six southern Alberta municipalities where widespread development is occurring.
Most proposals end up before a development appeal board or in the court of appeal.
When someone applies for a permit to build a hog barn or feedlot, the process should take six weeks but in many cases, approval drags on for 18 months. Even after approval is given, strict caveats are applied to every operation.
Herbut-Fikus contracts the experts to handle the engineering, hydrologic and soil testing reports required by a municipal council for all building permits.
Another type of consultant is emerging from engineering companies who are coming up with new ways to handle manure.
“I think it’s really going to generate a lot of opportunities for people and companies and organizations to take advantage of it,” said Jamie Stanford of Pildysh Engineering Inc. in Calgary.
This company is developing a technology that dries manure down to pellet form so it can be cheaply hauled out of feedlots and back to prairie grain fields where the organic matter is needed.
Plan of attack
Having such a system in place would be a plus for someone requesting a development permit. They can show they have a process in place to handle excess manure that can be hauled away rather than spread on nearby farm land, said Stanford.
“The numbers I’ve seen suggest there are in excess of 100 million tonnes of manure produced every year so there’s lots to deal with.”
The technology, still in the development phase, has potential to be used on any type of livestock operation that has large amounts of manure.
In addition, the company is looking to set up some strategic alliances with a feedlot or organization willing to try it out as a pilot project to see if it does work.
