A composite image of the rotary milking process at the Kreider Dairy Farm operation.
Jeremy Rowland, chief operating officer of Bion Technologies, talks to visitors on a tour of the Kreider Farm waste treatment facility. He is in one of the computer control rooms on the farm.
A crowd gathers at the unveiling of a new multimillion-dollar farm system at Kreider Farms.
It's "innovative and progressive projects like this that keep farmers in tune with our economy and in tune with our communities," one speaker said.
More than 100 local, state and agriculture officials gathered at Kreider Farms near Manheim on Thursday to mark the grand opening of a $7.5 million livestock waste-treatment system.
It will have benefits that will be felt far and wide — all the way to the Chesapeake Bay, in fact, officials said.
The new Cleantech facility, the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, treats and recycles manure from Kreider's estimated 1,400 dairy cows in an eco-friendly manner.
"Agriculture is much more than food and feed and fiber and fuel — agriculture really is the backbone of our country," said Ed Schafer, former North Dakota governor and U.S. agriculture secretary under President George W. Bush.
Schafer now is executive vice chairman of Kreider's partner in the project, Bion Environmental Technologies Inc. of Colorado and New York.
Details of the new facility were unveiled Thursday morning at a press conference held under a huge tent on the northern edge of the sprawling Kreider complex along Indian Village Road in Penn Township. A tour of the project also was provided.
The new Cleantech technology treats nutrients before they flow into local streams and watersheds, meaning less nitrogen and phosphorus from animal waste enter the Chesapeake Bay.
One speaker quoted the late Carl Sagan, astronomer and author, saying that "advances in medicine and agriculture have saved more lives than all lives lost in all wars combined."
With the Cleantech facility, "not only does it help protect our local aquifers and rivers as well as produce a source of renewable energy, but reduced cleanup costs mean an incredible savings for taxpayers," Dominic Bassani, Bion's chief executive officer, said.
The technology that provides the on-site nutrient treatment is known as advanced micro-aerobic digestion, and it forgoes the traditional approach of treating water at municipal wastewater and stormwater facilities.
The new facility received a $7.75 million loan from PennVEST, a state-run program that offers low-interest loans to community projects that aim to provide safer drinking water.
Lancaster County Commissioner Dennis Stuckey credited Kreider and its CEO and president, Ron Kreider, for their "forward-thinking" approach to a persistent environmental problem.
"Obviously, the Chesapeake Bay is very important to all of us. Lancaster County is pretty much 'Chesapeake Bay Central' right now, and anything we can do in a large operation like Kreider Farms" to reduce nutrients is a positive, Stuckey said.
Other speakers Thursday included John Hines, executive deputy secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, and state Agriculture Secretary George Greig.
"The Kreider project is a prime example that our efforts must move away from paper and plans and be about people and projects," Hines said. That "equates to progress for Pennsylvania's environment and agricultural community."
The project also is expected to provide renewable energy. When fully implemented in October, officials said, the technology will create enough energy to power some 2,700 homes.
Pennsylvania has committed to reducing state nitrogen runoff to the Chesapeake Bay.
Kreider Farms, a diverse egg, dairy, farming and business operation with around 225 employees, broke ground on the new Cleantech facility in November.