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Dakota dairy covers lagoon to control odors, GHG


September 15, 2009  by ECC

September 15, 2009,
White, SD – Linde Dairy has begun construction of a lagoon cover over the first
stage of the dairy’s manure lagoon system to control odors and greenhouse
gases.



September 15, 2009,
White, SD – Linde Dairy has begun construction of a lagoon cover over the first
stage of the dairy’s manure lagoon system to control odors and greenhouse
gases.

The project, the first of
its kind in South Dakota, is a partnership between Linde Dairy, Environmental
Credit Corp. (ECC), and Environmental Capital Management (ECM), a private hedge
fund.

 

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Through ECC’s Ag Methane
Lagoon Cover Program, the cost of installing the cover system will be paid for
through the creation and sale of carbon credits from the captured and destroyed
methane. Carbon credits are a form of pollution credit purchased by utilities
and manufactures as a way to pay for reductions of greenhouse gases at a lower
cost.

Dairyman Rein Landman
milks 1050 cows at his modern dairy. He sees this project as “something for the
future and for taking care of the environment.”

Methane contributes to
the greenhouse effect at a rate 21 times greater than carbon dioxide. ECC, a company
involved in the creation and monetization of carbon credits, handles all the
documentation and the expenses required to create the credits, sells them in
the market, and pays back the cost of the project installation. The dairy
shares the revenue from the project and gets a cheap source of renewable
biogas.

“I’m interested to catch
the methane and use it for the dairy,” said Landman.

Other benefits from the
project include odor reduction, storm water protection, pest control, and
reduced liability.

“Our lagoon cover
program is designed to make methane capture available to a much larger number
of farmers,” said Ed Heslop, CEO of ECC. “Working with us, dairymen can take
advantage of the existing carbon credit market to create this new environmental
asset and get all the benefits while protecting their milk revenue.”

ECC works with farmers
across the U.S., supplying both capital and expertise to develop and build
projects that reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated from common manure
management practices. ECC then navigates their farm partner through the complex
process of verification and certification that turns their real emission
reductions into a carbon financial instrument (or carbon credits) and the
revenue stream that the new financial instrument represents to the farm.

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