Aug. 27—- A company based in Massachusetts has gained a conditional use permit in Meeker County to build a large anaerobic digestion facility.
The
unanimously approved the permit for
of Weston, Massachusetts, to construct the facility on a roughly 22-acre site leased from the
about 3 1/2 miles east of Litchfield in Forest City Township.
The digester will produce renewable natural gas that will be injected into a
natural gas line. Vanguard will announce details about the Meeker County project in mid-September, according to the company.
The digester will process up to 115,000 tons of manure and organic food wastes each year to produce the natural gas, according to an
completed for the project. It is projected to produce enough natural gas to heat 1,600 homes, according to information provided to the county.
The feedstock is expected to include 60 to 70 percent food waste and 30 to 40 percent manure from the dairy.
The project needed two permits to move forward, both of which were approved. The first conditional use permit allows for the digester. The second allows the Wagner Dairy to change its manure handling permit to accommodate the project’s needs.
The dairy is permitted for 990 animal units, and currently uses a liquid manure storage system. The new permit will allow it to land apply the fertilizer resulting from the bio-digester processing.
The commissioners’ action on Aug. 19 followed a public hearing hosted one week earlier by the county’s Planning Commission.
At the County Board meeting, Meeker County Commissioner Cheryl Van Ort said she had been receiving a lot of phone calls about the project prior to the public hearing. Her district includes the project site. She said the hearing went very well and that “people had their questions answered.”
Van Ort and Commissioner Beth Oberg authored the resolution to approve the conditional use permit. Van Ort and Commissioner Steve Schmitt authored the subsequent resolution to approve the manure handling change. Both received unanimous approval.
Odor and manure handling and traffic volumes were the main questions raised at the public hearing, according to Greg Schultz, land use and records director for the county.
The company expects that up to 30 trucks will arrive daily with food wastes for the digester. As part of the permit, the company will be upgrading 288th Street leading to the site to 10-ton standards.
The food stock is expected to come from food processing companies in the metropolitan area. The Wagner Family Dairy will supply the manure.
Vanguard Renewables is currently developing its second bio-digester in Wisconsin. It reports that it is constructing a facility near River Falls, Wisconsin, to handle 250,000 tons of organic waste annually from western Wisconsin and the Twin Cities.
It is operating a
it constructed near Eden, Wisconsin, in Fond du Lac County, to process 100,000 tons of food and beverage wastes from the Milwaukee area.
According to the trade publication
the company is aiming to have 100 anaerobic digestion facilities operating by the end of 2028. The company was acquired by BlackRock in 2022, and the new ownership provided capital for the expansion projects, according to the publication.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found no significant environmental impact after reviewing the environmental assessment worksheet for the project. The company will need to obtain building permits from Meeker County to begin construction, and possibly a state permit to develop a pipeline connection, to move forward.
The Vanguard Renewables project will represent the second biodigester in Meeker County. The county approved plans for a biodigester for a dairy near Eden Valley one year ago.