Press conference with Upcycle Prez. reveals issues with EGLE
By Ken De Laat In a press conference held virtually Generate Upcycle President Bill Caesar spoke to the recent decision to shut down operations at the Fremont Regional Digester citing regulatory changes that have made by the Water Division of the Michigan Dept of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) “The liquid fertilizer we apply on fields known as digesting has been consistent since we began operating the site and there is no record that any digesting we have applied has ever contaminated groundwater,” said Caesar. “In Michigan we worked effectively with the solid waste division of EGLE for the first 5 years we operated the Digester. In 2021 however, we received a letter from the Water Resource Division of EGLE informing us they were taking over for the solid waste division. We actively engaged with the team from the Water Resource Division and provided them with an extraordinary amount of data on the composition of our digestate, where we apply it and the conditions under which we apply it. The biggest change in the approach taken by the water resource unit is that they have asserted that the liquid fertilizer we produce and apply on agricultural fields must be regulated like an industrial pollutant, not a nutrient rich fertilizer. Their assertion runs contrary to the approach taken by every other state, province and country where we operate.” Caesar stated that the new approach would require extensive changes in how, where and when digestate is applied. “Farmers who choose to use our liquid fertilizer on their fields would lose the ability to make their own agronomic decisions about when they plant what they plant and how they apply other fertilizers to their farms. The farmers who use our digestrate, a sustainable, organic fertilizer instead of synthetic chemical fertilizer will essentially be penalized by the state of Michigan. Not only are the proposed changes to our permit prohibitively expensive, because huge portions of the fields we currently use would be off limits, but these regulations are also operationally impossible for us to comply with. The Water Resource Division seems to be trying to fix something that isn’t broken. After months of discussion with EGLE we made the very difficult decision to cease operations at the end of December unless and until we can operate under a rational regulatory approach. “We do however think there’s a fix to this problem,” The company is asking the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) to replace the Water Resource Division of EGLE as the primary regulator for the digestate, ‘just as they are for all other fertilizers applied to farms in Michigan.’ “We would like to see MDARD EGLE and the Governor’s Office work together to build a durable regulatory structure for food waste based digesters that would not only enable us to make the incremental investments we currently have on hold.” Facility Manager Leon Scott gave some information about the Digester and spoke about its importance to the community, including the ability to power 3500 homes. He also referenced the workers at the digester including his wife ,daughter and son-in-law and described them as passionate about the work being done at the facility. Fremont City Manager Todd Blake also spoke to the benefits the FRD has provided to the community and the positive working relationship they have had with the city. Then came the questions for Caesar.. What has EGLE specifically said is their primary concern? “Primary concern is about groundwater contamination. They’re concerned about something getting into MI’s groundwater making it undrinkable. “There has been no issue with over application. We have worked under a framework that limits the amount we can put on any field at any given time. I don’t believe there has been any question about what we’ve done in the past. What EGLE is trying to do with the new regulations is to limit to an even greater extent the amount of digestate we can apply. We apply on about 5000 acres of land and we do it in two periods a year: the spring and fall.” Have any meetings been held with EGLE and/or MDARD as yet? “We have not had any formal meetings with MDARD. We have expressed our interest directly to EGLE in a letter that I wrote to EGLE Director Phil Rouse. We understand that EGLE and MDARD have had at least one conversation about this but we do not know what came out of that conversation.” EGLE says the digestate is primarily liquid waste not solid waste. “The Digestate we produce is and has been and always will be primarily a liquid product. It has not changed its composition. Regulation of it as an industrial pollutant as opposed to a nutrient rich fertilizer, to me, has nothing to do whether it is liquid or not. We have heard assertions from some people at EGLE that the material we take in today is different from the material we took in when we first opened the digester, that the digestate we produce today is fundamentally different than than the digestate we were producing originally. That is false. Absolutely patented false. We submit a report to EGLE with exactly what materials we brought into the facility and where we applied it. It’s no mystery to them what we've been doing.” Why was the decision made to close in December when EGLE has allowed the facility to continue operations until spring? “We received the letter in December of 2021 saying the Water Resource Division was taking over for the solid resource division. We are 23 months into this process. In July of this year fully 20 months after we started this process we received the first draft permit from EGLE. We responded in detail about why it would not work for us. “The EGLE team first arrived in Fremont to look at the site and to see the process of digesting application in September of this year. I cannot continue to run this site with the risk of the regulatory structure that they have proposed for us. We have been working on an extension since January of our original agricultural use authorization. They extended it once through June and again through December and offered to extend it again through March 21st. “ Let me tell you why March 21st is a very interesting date. We are allowed to land apply our digestate at certain times of year. For the next 3 months I would be building up digestate for application in the spring without any clarity of what regulatory regime I would be required to match that digestate in. To me that’s unacceptable. I don’t think we’re going to find a solution with the approach EGLE has propositioned us with. The fact that they want to treat this as an industrial pollutant doesn’t work at all for the material we’re producing. I could continue to take extensions but it won’t solve the problem and I would have an unbounded financial risk by doing that.” What explanation were you given as to why the regulation was moved to the Water Resource Group in the first place? I’m going to fight the urge to be a little flippant here. EGLE determined that our digestate, which has always been a liquid, was a liquid. And would be better managed by the Water Resource group than the Solid Waste group. I don’t have another explanation.” Asked about violations, Caesar stated they haven’t had any the last two years He stated in the 5 years previous they had a couple related to odors that were addressed by investing about a million dollars in creating covered lagoons to eliminate that problem. It seems the ball has landed in the State’s court on this issue. Whether EGLE and/or MDARD step forward and respond to the concerns laid out by the Upcycle folks or not will go a long way in determining the future of the FRD.
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April 2024
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