42 



MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION NO. 10 65 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



must be highly diluted if it is not to completely 

 exhaust the dissolved oxygen of the stream. 



Wastes carried in runoff from barnyards and 

 feedlots may vary in BOD from 100 to 10,000 

 p.p.m. depending on dilution and degree of deteri- 

 oration of wastes. Public health authorities object 

 to runoff entering a stream if it exceeds 20 p.p.m. 

 in BOD. Hence, the problem is obvious. 



Many installations using lagoons for oxidation 

 of animal wastes have been tried (S). Success has 

 not been complete. The South Dakota agricultural 

 experiment station reports that they are essentially 

 a failure in that State. These lagoons are plagued 

 by problems, such as overloading, floating litter, 

 intermittent loading, aquatic weeds, and sludge 

 buildup. 



When a lagoon becomes overloaded, bacteriologi- 

 cal decomposition changes from aerobic to anaero- 

 bic. During anaerobic decomposition, noxious 

 gases and vile odors emanate. Under such condi- 

 tions, the lagoon becomes more unacceptable than 

 the ordinary manure pile. 



The Pasveer Ditch was developed in Holland to 

 handle municipal sewage. It accentuates natural 

 oxidation by a motor-driven paddle wheel that 

 both aerates and stirs. Modifications of the Pasveer 

 Ditch for handling animal wastes are being tried in 

 the United States. Animal wastes pose a much 

 greater problem since they are not nearly as diluted 

 as metropolitan sewage. 



Even though the concern over animal wastes is 

 great in terms of their high BOD, their use as 

 spawning grounds for vermin, and their role as 

 vehicles for infectious agents, public objections 

 mostly arise through olfactory awareness. 



Odors and water-polluting wastes from the con- 

 centrated egg production industry in Sullivan 

 County, N.Y., is posing a serious threat to the 

 resort industry that has flourished in the favorable 

 climate and scenic attractions of this county. Re- 

 ports have been made of serious losses in recrea- 

 tional enterprises because of offensive odors and 

 other nuisances arising from the poultry. 



The communities of Gardena and Torrance in 

 Los Angeles County, Calif., have enacted ordi- 

 nances requiring all dairy farmers to move out 

 because of odors and other nuisances. Within the 

 last 6 years, 43 dairy operations have had to move 

 out of Los Angeles County because odors and 



other nuisances made these dairy cows "noncom- 

 patible" with Metropolitan Los Angeles. 



People in Milford, Tex., have brought numerous 

 damage suits against a large feedlot separated 

 from the community by a mile- wide buffer zone 

 because of odors, flies, dust, and water pollution. 



In 1963, the State of Kansas enacted a feedlot 

 licensing law to provide State inspection and con- 

 trol over the handling of wastes from feedlots 

 1,000 head and greater in capacity. The law was 

 enacted because of complaints regarding odors, 

 vermin, and water pollutants. 



In early 1966, the Interstate Commission on the 

 Potomac River Basin (45) reported: 



Every time its rains .... enormous amounts of 

 animal wastes are washed from farmyards into 

 the River, rendering it unsafe for swimming .... 

 Although only a quarter-of-a-million people live in 

 the river basin above Great Falls, it has been esti- 

 mated that the number of farmyard animals — 

 cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys — is the equi- 

 valent of a human population of 3.5 million. 

 While most of the human population is served 

 by some sort of sewage treatment plant, there is 

 no comparable treatment for the animal wastes. 



It can be stated without fear of successful contra- 

 diction that domestic livestock are producing 

 wastes that are in some degree offensive to the 

 general public. 



Plant Residues on Farms and Ranches 



Plant residues from crops and orchards contrib- 

 ute to pollution in two ways ; namely, as a source 

 of smoke and other air pollutants when burned, 

 and as reservoirs of plant diseases and other pests. 



Agricultural wastes from orchards, grainfields, 

 and rangelands, especially in the Western United 

 States, are burned as the practical means of ridding 

 the land of the wastes. In one California county in 

 1960, an estimated 41,000 tons of orchard wastes 

 were burned. From 30 to 80 percent of approxi- 

 mately 240,000 acres of rice in 8 California counties 

 are burned annually. The smoke may be seen for 

 miles. 



Around 900,000 acres of grass are grown for 

 grass seed each year, with the production of about 

 2 tons of residue per acre. Estimates indicate that 

 about one-third of this acreage is burned each year 

 as a sanitation measure. Such burning emits 

 around 50,000 tons of particulate matter as carbon 

 and ash into the atmosphere. 



