KEN DUFTY: A Dissertation on Pumping Chicken Litter into Our Lower Aquifers

The following was written by Ken Dufty.

The image below is the stratigraphy Vaulted Deep handed out to back up their claim that there is a “solid impermeable rock layer” directly below the Yorkies.  It was handed out during the October A-NPDC groundwater committee meeting..

    In my 15 years of studying the aquifer and its hydrogeology, I can find NO evidence that there is such an impermeable layer somewhere in the St. Mary saline aquifer, which is directly below the Lower Yorktown-Eastover complex.

    Unless that solid hard rock confining layer can be found all of a sudden, it is highly unlikely this deep well injection proposal can pass any scintilla of support by elected officials, regulators, and citizens of the ESVA.

    Even if one mysteriously appears, this well will be classified as “experimental” and no one wants to “experiment” with our sole source aquifer.  We do not have the ability to build a 75 mile pipe from Lake Gaston like the Hampton Roads area was forced to do (1980-1995) after they pumped down the Potomac aquifer to the point it was against the law to wash your car, water your lawn, or even to enjoy a glass of water in a restaurant without a formal request.  That happened.  1978.  Look it up.      Now HRSD is pumping over one million gallons of treated sewage into the Potomac aquifer every day…with plans to raise that volume 10 times….because their land is sinking (the aquifer holds it up) and they pumped that mighty groundwater source down 220 feet until they realized what they were doing.   Check out their folly by researching  the Nansemond project Sustainable   Water Initiative For Tomorrow (SWIFT) insanity.

     Finally, VD is proposing to pump nitrates in the form of chicken manure into the lower aquifer.     Check out this on your AI tool.  “Do nitrates in drinking water release and magnify the naturally occurring Uranium into the potable water supply?”    Peer reviewed study answers that in the affirmative.

       Closing here:  The Frontier Coalition is a consortium of billion dollar companies who apparently want to add to their portfolios the fact that they are fighting global warming and climate change.   So they fund projects like Vaulted Deep so apparently they can prove to their investors they are saving the world.

       Interestingly, one of the caveats the Coalition touts in their argument that deep well injection is a good approach to mitigating global warming is that the carbon-rich slurry that they pay companies like VD to shoot deep into the earth MUST BE A WASTE PRODUCT THAT HAS NO HIGHER OR BETTER USE.

       To that we say:  #1- composted chicken litter is considered among the best and most economical fertilizers in the world.  We collectively hold that It is more responsible to process, dry, pelletize it and market it. In short- It is not to be wasted;

      #2-  Composted Chicken manure is more bio-available to plants and when applied in frequencies and amounts required by state regulations, it increases yield, health, and size of plants and agricultural products.   So ask yourself this:  “What do healthier and bigger plants- a direct effect of chicken manure uptake- have to do with carbon sequestering and climate tempering?  Answer:   Plants “eat” CO2, one of the two primary Greenhouse gases, and convert that gas into Oxygen.   The bigger and healthier they are, the more carbon they store.   When we consume those healthier carbon-rich plants, we convert that carbon into useful energy- it is not wasted.

    Now some of you readers may check the box that this last point is akin to  a frivilous argument by tree-huggers and NIMBY’s who would do anything, anytime, and anywhere to stop development and “progress”.  However that argument about an organic carbon-sequestering effect has much more credibilty than Vaulted Deeps ridiculous sales pitch that we can slow down global climate change by pumping a valuable commodity deep into the ground via an experiment with our sustainable life here on the Shore.  It’s like you saying you can bail out a sinking ocean liner with a thimble.    In short, this writer believes it to be a diversion from what the world HAS to do to address climate change, and it smacks of a sham and is, frankly, dangerous.

     This project is getting steam and it will continue to wind its way through a regulatory process that has as its result if successful,  an  existential experiment that, if it fails, will affect every living thing on the ESVA.

              Deep Well Injection is currently not allowed in Accomack County’s Zoning Ordinance.   If they decide to amend their Zoning Map or Text to allow deep well injection, it is likely the flood gates will be open on the entire ESVA for dozens, if not hundreds of these experimental wells that pose an irreversible threat to our sustainable future.

Please contact Mike Mason @ “mmason@co.accomack.va.us” and “jwilliams@co.northampton.va.us” with your comments and concerns, asking them to take whatever relief that you feel is appropriate, including petitioning the EPA at “benton.james@epa.gov” with their  (and your) position.    Ask both Mike and Janice to copy the County Supervisors and Planning Commissioners in both counties on your comments.

About the Author

Wayne Creed

Administrator

View All Posts