By Maureen Hayden
CNHI Statehouse Bureau
INDIANAPOLIS —
The nightlife of laying hens may not seem like compelling research, but it’s producing important information for an Indiana scientist leading the largest-ever study of air emissions at the nation’s livestock farms.
The study has generated 6,000 pages of data on livestock-generated air pollution at a time when federal regulators are moving to limit air emissions at farming and ranching operations throughout the nation.
“We now have a wealth of much-needed scientific information that we’ve never had before,” said Al Heber, the Purdue professor of agricultural and biological engineering who led the two-year, $14 million study.
Heber submitted the final 300 pages of a report on the study last week.
Among the data collected and analyzed is information about when high levels of particulate matter are emitted on poultry farms.
The study found, for example, that laying hens generate much less air pollution at night when they’re sleeping than during the day when they’re active and kicking up dust.
New laying hens, which tend to be more agitated, also produce more particulate matter than their older, more settled counterparts.
The team of scientists also used sensors to collect and measure real-time levels of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, nitrous oxide, and other substances emitted from manure lagoons and livestock operations at 20 farms in nine states. Five of those farms are located in Indiana.
The information collected is important because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is formulating rules for controlling dust and other air emissions at livestock operations. Federal regulators want to know if those operations are complying with the Clean Air Act.
Until the Purdue-led study was conducted, there had never been enough real-time data generated to give federal regulators the information needed to devise science-based guidelines for livestock air emissions.
“We’ve created a huge database of information that was collected with a high level of quality control,” Heber said.
The study was required as part of a 2005 compliance agreement in between the livestock industry and the EPA.
The EPA supervised the study, but it was the livestock industry that paid for it out of agricultural research fund.
When the study was first announced three years ago, EPA administrators acknowledged that they lacked the level of scientific information and data needed to craft policy on livestock operations.
Livestock operators, in turn, supported the study as a way to test and measure farming practices that could lead to better air-emission controls.
The researchers on Heber’s team feel like they’ve made an important contribution to the advancement of the science on air pollution. “It was a classic partnership of industry, government, and academia working together,” Heber said.
