Background and Summary
Livestock production contributes substantially to the economies of many European countries in terms of employment, export of products and use and maintenance of natural resources. However, much of this production is from intensified systems, as it is the case for pig, poultry and increasingly cattle production. This is often the result of the availability of poor soils especially in the western regions of Europe. Also known as “the Atlantic Arc”, these areas share common features other than a simple geographic link. These are (a) high tourist and cultural value, (b) importance of livestock production to support the local economy, (c) remoteness from main population and commercial centres, (d) elevated vulnerability to pollution due to poor soils, hilly ground and relatively short river systems. However, intensification is also known to lead to a number of environmental effects, as emissions of pollutants to the air, (e.g. ammonia, methane nitrous oxide), discharges to soils and surface waters (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus, and heavy metals) and health risks to animals and people via water and food contamination. The risks from ammonia (NH3) emissions relate both to enrichment of poor soils and (indirectly) to the acidification of surface waters; free ammonia is also toxic to fish at low concentrations. NH3 in housing facilities can also adversely affect animal performance and welfare. Such emissions from various European livestock production facilities, including poultry houses, have been widely investigated, but many of the studies have been carried out in Central or North European countries where the climate is cooler: information is lacking on the influence of a maritime climate on these emissions.
Recently, odour emissions from livestock operations are being considered a major nuisance where an increasing number of rural residential developments are built in traditional farming areas. There is also clear conflict with the tourist industry in this respect. The EU 96/61/EC Directive, also known as IPPC (Integrated Prevention Pollution Control), aims at regulating all forms of emission into the atmosphere, water and soil from intensive animal facilities (farms with more than 40000 poultry, 2000 fattening pig or 750 sow places). The Directive is based on the concept of Best Available Technique (BAT), according to which farmers must choose and adopt those technologies available in the market that can prevent or limit emissions and that are economically affordable for farmers. Some of possible techniques are described as:
Techniques that reduce gas discharge with designs that diminish the surface of slurry exposed in the tank, with frequent drainage, storage with reduced ventilation or with internal air treatment.
Traditionally constructed building designs, complete slatted floors with deep tanks and which treat the extracted air to reduce its gas content, dust and odours at the end of the process (end of pipe). These techniques also include air scrubbers.
Dryers for poultry manure, so that the stabilized product may be used in agriculture.
Covers for manure storage tanks
Additives during the storage of slurry in tanks in order to reduce air emissions and to retain particle ammonium that produces a slow release effect of nitrogen once applied to the soil.
Biogas Plants
Solid-liquid Separators
Physical-chemical treatment
Biological treatment
Objectives
Available techniques to reduce the negative environmental impacts from livestock manures are rarely used: amongst the reasons are a perceived high cost, confusion of the benefits and a lack of demonstration on commercially viable farms. The aim of this project is to establish a scientifically based protocol for an evaluation of the economic and environmental efficiency of existing options for minimising the environmental impact on water and air of livestock wastes originating from pig, poultry and cattle farms. The result will be to obtain a standardised method for evaluating the efficiency of various environmental technologies implemented in livestock farms. The parameters that will be controlled are those related to the nitrogen and carbon cycles, and therefore attention will be paid to the content of nitrogen in the water and to the contamination of the air by ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane.
This general objective is divided into five sub-objectives, to be applied via the partners to selected farms across the Atlantic Area regions:
Understand the efficiency and cost of the environmental strategies which are currently available and being implemented.
Obtain uniform protocols for parameter measurement in air and water that allow us to carry out an objective comparison of the different techniques evaluated.
Development of a protocol for the application of a system for evaluating the environmental impact linked with livestock farms.
Development of software that serves as a tool for selection of environmental techniques in farms
Communicate project results to the different groups of interest.
The farming operations which are the object of the study will be: (a) those currently regulated by the IPPC on the basis of legislation transposed by each nation, (b) those regulated at regional level, and (c) cattle enterprises that do not require IPPC licensing at either national or regional level will also be considered in regions where these enterprises dominate the agricultural enterprise mix.
The present project considers the objectives highlighted in the Atlantic Space Operational Program 2007-2013 by being clearly defined within Priority 4 (to promote trans-national synergies in sustainable urban and regional development). Within this priority, the tasks of the project correspond to Objective 4.1 (Pool resources and skills in the field of sustainable urban and rural development) through the development of a protocol to establish the level of contamination of a livestock operation once the different contamination reducing methodologies that have been implemented by each implied region are shared.
In order to meet the set objectives, a series of actions within the corresponding activities are proposed. Implementing the actions will take place sequentially in the following order:
Determination of the environmental techniques to be monitored both during the first two years by the partners involved in these tasks. Three example farms (case studies) will be studied per year in different seasons controlled on the basis of climate, and both technical and management conditions.
Establishment of the protocols for sampling and analysis, including calibrations of the equipment. Once the study farms and the validated tools for pollution control have been identified, the monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions (N2O and CH4) and of NH3 in the air, and of nitrates in water will be carried out, the aim being to compare and contrast the efficiency of the different methodologies in the reduction of these environmental parameters. Also, data on the use of water, electricity and other consumables will be obtained that allow us to identify the economic cost of these implemented techniques.
The results will allow us to establish a classification of the different environmental techniques with respect to their environmental efficiency and cost during the third year of the project; these results will be integrated into a software that allows us to include new techniques and to obtain solid information at the time of recommending one or other environmental procedure to a particular livestock operation.
One of the expected results is to have a clear criteria for an evaluation that allows the comparison of the various techniques in an objective way, providing base-line information when considering different environmental strategies before their implementation, with the established methodology also serving as a frame of reference for the evaluation process, and in which to include new strategies whose adequacy to the particular conditions of each region may be evaluated.
Transnational cooperation is preferable in order to achieve the desired objectives of this project, given that, at a regional or even national level, it would be difficult to carry out some of the planned tasks. The consortium brings together highly qualified experts, covering environmental control of air and water, and the management and treatment of livestock waste. The participation of the regions located in the defined “Atlantic Space” will allow us to consider environmental techniques at a geographical level. When considered as a whole, this allows us to study a set of techniques that in any other way would be impossible to embrace, and which reflects the important connection of this project with real problematic situations within each region. In addition, by homogenizing the study methodology for analysing the efficiency of the environmental techniques, we will create a framework for the establishment of a protocol within which new techniques can be included that are under study or are in the process of being implemented; the methodology will also indicate the weak points for each technique and, as a result, may also give rise to the design of new environmental techniques.
The communication plan designed for the project will facilitate internal communication amongst the partners, and also aid in the dissemination of the project and its results through external communication actions to the wider European audience and interested stakeholders.
