“Solving Environmental Problems Naturally”

Carcass Burial Landfill Application - - - Odor Control

Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) United Kingdom

Tow Law Foot and Mouth Burial Site – County Durham – England

We had previously approached DEFRA at Tow Law with a view to using MICROBE-LIFT (ACF-32) to control odor at the burial site and had been given approval for a trial.

The trial was to take place on one burial pit approximately 150 long x 30 meters wide x 10 meters deep. This pit is presently about 80% full and contains 24,000 sheep, cattle and pig carcasses. BOD in excess of 20,000 mg has been experienced.

The pit is lined with sheeting and has 3 concrete vertical columns to enable leachate (all the blood/bodily fluids) to be pumped out to a holding tank. Thereafter, it is taken by tanker to a waste water treatment plant in Newcastle about 50 miles away.

On arrival at the site, all the carcasses are dumped on a large concrete apron where they are literally flattened by driving over them with a front end loader. The cattle are ‘spiked’ with a heavy forklift truck to empty all stomach contents. This is not a place for the faint hearted.

The carcasses are emptied into the pit, covered in straw and plastic sheeting and a layer of earth about 500mm thick before the next carcasses are laid. The pit is now full to about 2 meters from the top and about 120 meters in length. The last carcasses received were about 2 weeks ago and the odor control consultants, MEL, have now managed to bring the odors under some sort of control by using Diox (Chlorine Dioxide) to suppress odor in the pits, and also using a sprinkler system around the site, which is sending out fine jets of a pine smelling deodorant. They are not permitted to spray Diox as it is toxic, so it has to be poured onto areas where the odor is worst.

About 4 weeks ago, the pit had been bubbling on the surface with leachate, but now had settled and very little surface leachate was apparent. Odor could be detected in pockets but was difficult to pinpoint except for the concrete columns, which gave off bad odors.

With OPC’s assistance, we had calculated the surface area would require 150 litres of ACF-32 mixed with 450 litres of water. This was mixed by MEL and applied with a high pressure hose. The surface of the pit was very dry, uneven soil, which was cracked with some wet patches caused by rising leachate. These areas were heavily dosed, although the whole surface area was covered. In total, 350 litres of ACF-32 were used and 1050 litres of water.

At the end of the application, there was general consensus that some minor improvement had been achieved. However, as the odor problems at the time of the trial were relatively mild, it was difficult to quantify the improvement. We agreed to re-assess the next morning and, again with OPC’s guidance, decided to undertake a further application if no significant improvement could be detected.

On arrival at site the following morning, the MEL site manager advised that, the previous evening, they had a small but bad spillage of leachate during pumping at another pit. The odor was awful and he was about to dose with Diox when he decided to use ACF-32 instead. In his own words, he was amazed at how effectively and quickly the odors were controlled.

The Site Crew were now converts and on revisiting the pit we had sprayed the previous day, everyone agreed that ACF-32 had made a considerable difference. Consequently, no further spray was undertaken. We dosed a vertical column and conducted a leachate control test by spreading some on the concrete apron and spraying withACF-32. All of these tests proved very successful.

Lessons to be learned.

• ACF-32’s ability is best demonstrated when the odors are at their worst.

• Diox is difficult and dangerous to use and the site crew hate it. They have suffered headaches, nosebleeds and nausea during applications. ACF-32 is a proven alternative, and is completely safe.

• ACF-32 can be applied with a spray or poured directly on to the affected area and is therefore very user friendly.