Tribes and Dairy Farmers Working Together
For A Better Environment
The Tulalip Tribes and the Lower Skykomish River Dairy
Farmers are working together to develop a Bio-Gas facility. The Tulalip Tribes have contracted with
the Clark Group, LLC to help the Dairy Farmers and the Tribe develop a
feasibility study and business plan for this project. The facility should help to make Dairies
more economically viable and help the Tribes protect water quality for
fish.
The Bio-Gas facility is basically a sewage treatment
system for cow manure, with a methane collector and power generator
attached. Cow manure releases
methane gas, which can be burned to create electricity or compressed and
sold as liquefied natural gas.
Methane is a relatively clean burning fuel and its emissions are
less damaging to the ozone layer than the methane gas itself.
The treated bio-solids collected during the process are
free of harmful bacteria and can be used for creating high quality compost
or fertilizer for the local market.
The liquid effluent can be re-used for flushing the manure out of
barns and for watering the farm fields.
