The Ministry of Environment on Thursday urged the nation’s about 1,400 small-scale animal farm operators to step up their efforts in meeting the 5 percent target of wastewater recycling by the end of this year.
Husbandry wastewater remained the main source of river pollution last year, Department of Water Quality Protection Director-General Wang Yue-bin (王嶽斌) said.
Data from Kaohsiung’s Guting Bridge and Jiouru Bridge monitoring stations showed that up to 90 percent of river pollution at the two sites last year stemmed from husbandry wastewater, he said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Husbandry wastewater used to be regulated by the Effluent Standards (放流水標準) and discharged into rivers following a three-stage wastewater treatment, he said.
As such, sewage discharge would inevitably contaminate river water, he said, adding that the ministry revised the Regulations Governing Water Pollution Control Measures and Test Reporting Management (水污染防治措施及檢測申報管理辦法), requiring farms to meet livestock wastewater recycling targets based on their size.
Farms with 20 to 2,000 pigs or 40 to 500 cattle are defined as “small-scale” farms, while those with more than 2,000 pigs or more than 500 cattle are defined as “large-scale” farms, according to the regulations.
Large-scale farms were required to have 5 percent of livestock wastewater recycled by the end of 2022 and reach another target of 10 percent by the end of 2027, Wang said.
Small-scale farms must reach the 5 percent target by the end of this year and the 10 percent target by the end of 2029, he said, adding that those who fail to meet the targets would be fined up to NT$6 million (US$205,620) in accordance with Article 46 of the regulations.
Data showed that 3,902 of 5,334 animal farms nationwide have reached the 5 percent target as of this month, accounting for 73 percent, he said.
While large-scale farms have all achieved their 5 percent target, the achievement rate of small-scale farms was 70 percent, he said.
Pingtung and Yunlin counties — two major pig farming areas — still have more than 300 farms that have not met the target, he added.
Livestock excrement recycled as digestate can be used as nitrogen fertilizer, and the method has been applied to at least 133 agricultural crops nationwide, he said.
The ministry last year also collaborated with Taiwan Sugar Co (Taisugar) and the Pingtung County Environmental Protection Bureau in using digestate to fertilize woodlands, Wang said.
An energy-saving, non-electric fertilization system leveraging the gravity flow to distribute the fertilizer was developed through the collaboration, he added.
Trees fertilized with digestate grew well and had no unusual smell, Wang said, adding that the woodlands’ groundwater tested normal.
The biogas was also utilized as a green energy source and could generate up to 1.861 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, he said.
It also helped reduce 85,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and 95,000 bags of artificial fertilizer, he added.
To promote the development and applications of sustainable environmental governance technologies, the ministry would establish a certification system for emerging energy and resource recovery techniques, as well as an incentive program for biogas power generation by husbandry operators by the end of next month, he said.
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