Many water plants across the country are facing the problem of lime build-up from the water treatment process, with and no cost-effective way to dispose of the byproduct. An Ohio water treatment plant came up with a creative solution to this problem that involved finding an agricultural partner to re-use the lime as a soil additive. After researching possible partners, the plant teamed up with a local farmers’ co-op and together they implemented a plan to dredge lime from the water treatment plant’s quarry and sell it to area farmers at market price. The co-op invested about $1 million in infrastructure next to the quarry, consisting of a VMI MD-615 dredge, tanks, pumps, testing equipment and a scale.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency approved the plan, and the co-op began serving local farmers in 2011. The project will remove approximately 10,000 wet tons of “soft” lime from the quarry per year which the co-op then applies to farmers’ fields. Soft lime is a superior product to the dry lime that normally used to balance the pH of their fields after harvest. The smaller particle size, or “fineness,” of soft lime mixes into the soil more effectively than dry lime, and can be applied more evenly. Because soft lime is liquid, the wind doesn’t blow it away. Environmentally, farmland application is better and more cost effective because the byproduct is not dumped into a landfill.
This article was in
International Dredging Review
MAR/APR 2012 l VOL 31 NO 2
www.dredgemag.com
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