TOWN OF WRIGHTSTOWN, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A conditional use permit for a manure biodigester proposal in Brown County was approved by the Town of Wrightstown board Wednesday night.
Board members voted 3-0 in favor of the $60 million plan.
BC Organics wants to build the facility in a field on Mill Road near Old 57 in the Town of Wrightstown. The biodigester would turn manure from 13 local farms into renewable natural gas.
“We’ve gotta finish off a lot of details for the design in order to get the project submitted for all of the required permits,” Dan Nemke, with Dynamic Holding, Inc. said. “As you saw through the conditional use permit process, there’s an extensive permitting process that goes along with this.”
The permit includes several conditions the biodigester will have to meet. The conditional use permit will be re-evaluated after five years.
The permit says the biodigester must:
Only process cow manure
Be anaerobic (without oxygen) and remain covered
Have alarms installed to monitor the system 24/7
Operators must monitor the quantity and quality of wastewater discharged into the East River watershed
70 percent of manure will be pumped to the site and the remainder will be trucked
Truck traffic must be limited to 55-59 round trips per day
“Basically just trying to keep everything the way it is right now,” Bill Verbeten, the town chairman said. “That we don’t create a bigger problem than what we have right now.”
While the town has addressed all citizen concerns brought to their attention, some residents remain wary of the biodigester.
Travis Gilson lives near the proposed site for the digester. He tells FOX 11 there’s concern about the wastewater.
“There’s I believe some of it was estrogen, the antibiotics they give the animals, and a few other things. And this does nothing for killing the bacteria. Nothing.”
The town says there are no DNR water quality standards for estrogen and other antibiotics, so it will not be monitored.
The biodigester builders claim the processed wastewater is designed to be cleaner than the river water.
The Town of Holland rejected a similar proposal in May.
