Hundreds of acres of farm land in Sumter County might be injected with food processing wastewater residuals and waste from grease traps of restaurants.

Terra Renewal Services Inc. (TRS) of Russellville, Ark., has submitted a permit to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) that states, “A maximum of approximately three million gallons per month of food processing wastewater residuals and grease trap waste is proposed to be land applied on an additional 25 farm sites with a total area of 4,359 acres.

“The proposed additional farm sites are located in Dooly, Macon, Webster, Sumter, Marion and Schley counties. The sources of the waste are located in Georgia and are various food processing facilities and commercial facilities such as restaurants.

“...The food wastewater residuals are generated during the treatment of wastewater at the facilities and are licensed as a bulk liquid fertilizer by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.”

Michael Roys of TRS used chicken processing plants, which are prevalent in the state, as an example. He said these plants use a tremendous amount of water to process their chickens, and some of this water becomes wastewater after the process.

Most of these chicken plants have their own systems to treat this wastewater, and a gravy-like sludge is left over after the wastewater has been treated.

Roys said this “sludge” is bits of pieces of the chicken that wasn’t used in the food process. The plants produce a tremendous amount of this sludge and TRS comes to pick it up in their specially-designed tankers and then take the sludge to the land of various farmers.

This sludge, which is all natural, according to Roys, is injected beneath the crop land. He said the sludge is a natural fertilizer high in nitrogen, which keeps crops healthy.

TRS trucks inject the sludge underneath the crops. Because the nutrients go right to the roots of the crops and to prevent run-off and odor.

He said this process also benefits the cities where these chicken plants are located because they would have to find a way to dispose of this sludge. Roys said it would probably end up in a landfill and that wouldn’t benefit anyone.

Roys said the injection of sludge into farmland is heavily regulated by the EPD, because too much sludge in a particular area of crop land could be more detrimental than beneficial.

There are strict guidelines on how much sludge TRS can apply to a definite acreage, he explained. Roys said guidelines for farmers who apply their own fertilizer are much more lenient, which can lead to the over applying of fertilizer.

TRS would like to apply sludge on farmland near these areas in Sumter County: Middle River Road, Zack Daniels Road, Lamar Road, Ga. Highway 45 southwest of Plains, Cobb Creek Road and Lane Store Road. The total acreage in Sumter is 1,481.

Roys just used chicken processing plants as an example. He said TRS gets sludge from almost any type of plant or facility that processes food and there’s no cost to the farmer.

Tom Hopkins of the Georgia EPD agreed that this sludge process is both beneficial to food processing plants as well as farmers.