An Answer to Waste Worries?

Allen Family Foods has gone down the manure-furnace path before. Several years ago, it partnered with an engineering firm in Michigan to build one in Hurlock in Dorchester County. But that project ran aground after technical design and cost problems.

The proposed unit under review isn't as complicated. It is designed to overcome the difficulties of burning higher-moisture litter by directing hot air at it.

Neither Allen Family Foods nor the engineers would disclose costs. But such a burner package would generally cost more than $1 million, experts say.

When Allen Family Foods presented its plans in Dorchester County last week, they received a skeptical but somewhat welcome reception. County resident Glen Payne told the council that he was worried about odors and emissions. He said he'd been to Britain and scoped out a facility. "People in that plant wore masks," he said.

But Dave Mooney, one of the Georgia engineers hired by Allen Family Foods, said his design mimics elements employed in Britain for odor control. The manure would be stored in a room with negative air pressure. Inside it would stink. Outside, it wouldn't, he said.

Council President Glenn L. Bramble, a lifelong county resident, called the venture a good idea as long as it met environmental requirements.

He didn't anticipate a significant increase in truck traffic. And he said the common practice of spreading chicken manure on farms hasn't always been ideal.

"I know it's part of the process," he told the Allen Family Foods executives. "But when they spread that on the field, for about two or three days, it's bad. It's no question about that. But I live with that; I don't complain. But, I mean, I have to put the windows up."