Not so long ago, farmers Bill and Nanette Furina considered shutting down their Egg Basket farm in Mount Joy.

"We said, 'If we're going to stay here, we're going to have to find some way to generate our own electricity,'" Mr. Furina said.

Thursday, the Furinas announced a partnership with an alternative-energy company they hope will help keep their farm viable for years to come.

EnergyWorks, of Annapolis, Md., has agreed to build an anaerobic digestion plant on the poultry farm that would produce biogas from waste created by the Furinas' 400,000 chickens.

Construction of the plant, the first of three planned by EnergyWorks, is expected to begin before the end of the year; it should be operational by mid-2008.

The plant will produce an odorless, colorless gas similar to natural gas that is produced when animal waste is decomposed by bacteria in the absence of oxygen.

The biogas could be used in a boiler or generator to produce electricity for the farm or gassified and burned to produce heat.

The gas also could be sold and shipped from the farm to consumers or a utility company through a pipeline or processed into vehicle fuel.

"We may end up exporting 100 percent of the energy, or we may use it all on site," Patrick Thompson, EnergyWorks president and chief executive, said.

If the gas is sold off-site, the Furinas would receive a portion of the value of the energy produced from their manure, Thompson said.

However the gas is used, Mrs. Furina said, it will help cash flow at the 95-acre farm.

"We have four high-rise layer houses with a 432,000-bird capacity," she said. "We remodeled the facility in 2000, which increased our financial drain."

EnergyWorks plans to invest about $8 million to build and operate the three plants planned for Lancaster County. The other two will convert waste from pig and dairy farms to energy.

Thompson said the goal of EnergyWorks is to sustain local agriculture and help farmers comply with the government-mandated cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2010.

A report by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation conservation group last year called Lancaster County a manure hot spot because it generates about 12 percent of all the nitrogen produced from manure in the watershed.

"Everyone is acutely aware of the problem of the concentration of agriculture here in Lancaster County," Thompson said.

"The nutrients have been flowing into the Chesapeake Bay for some time. We're going at these projects with the intent of reaching a solution."

Manure stored and spread on farms can seep into local waterways, which drain into the Chesapeake Bay.

State Sen. Michael Brubaker said it's important to find ways to cleanly utilize the resources provided by facilities such as Egg Basket, which produces about 3,070 tons of layer manure per year.

"It's a technology that's been proven. When you partner a farm with energy experts, it's a winning combination," Brubaker said. "The EnergyWorks plan results in a better environment, and in turn, healthier communities."

Brubaker represents the 36th District, in which the Furina farm is located.

EnergyWorks owns and operates small renewable-energy systems around the world.

The Lancaster County facilities will be its first venture into manure-to-energy technology. Thompson said EnergyWorks is finalizing contracts with two other farms where biogas plants will be built.

The firm is conducting feasibility studies to decide what type of plants to build, but none of them likely will require approvals from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, an official said.

If the plant were to gassify or incinerate manure, it would need approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Thompson said neighbors living near those plants "should be delighted" that manure will be processed quickly, reducing the threat of contamination to streams and groundwater.

"Whatever environmental issues exist today at theses farms will be alleviated through the anaerobic digestion process," Thompson said.

E-mail Patrick Burns at pburns@lnpnews.com.