OAK HALL, Va. - A new method of disposing of poultry waste thousands of feet beneath the earth’s surface has been proposed in Accomack County.
Vaulted Deep, a waste management company based in Houston, Texas, specializes in permanently storing organic material, including poultry waste, deep underground. The method, the company says, supports clean land, air, and water by removing “end of life” carbon that can produce methane and pollution.
The waste, according to Vaulted, is stored in a porous layer of rock sealed between two non-permeable layers - roughly 5,000 feet below the surface.
“A great way to think about it is three Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other,” Vaulted Deep Director of External Affairs Katherine Morille said.
The entire process is regulated by the EPA, according to the company. Vaulted currently runs two of the disposal facilities in Los Angeles and in Hutchinson, Kansas. Both sites have been operating for years, Morille tells us, and the Los Angeles facility received a “comfort letter” from the EPA, a letter that Morille says underscores the government’s trust in the facility.
Now, Vaulted is looking to bring the method to Accomack County - specifically, to a property off Nocks Landing Road in Oak Hall. Vaulted Deep recently presented the technology at an Eastern Shore of Virginia Ground Water Committee meeting to outline the process.
“Accomack has a lot of poultry manure, and it has excess poultry manure more than the local farm land can safely absorb,” Morille tells WBOC. “This kind of creates a challenge for farmers and the community, and Accomack is exactly the kind of place that Vaulted wants to be where our solution can help by taking pressure off of the farmers and the land and protecting the water.”
Vaulted says the proposed site would dispose of dissolved air flotation waste created when animal processing facilities treat their wastewater. DAF systems create an organic slurry as fats, oils, grease, and suspended solids are removed from the water. Elsewhere on Delmarva, DAF byproduct is often kept in large storage tanks.
Vaulted Deep’s proposal would avoid the common complaints surrounding DAF tanks, according to Morille, including the often-offensive smell emitted by them. Morille says once waste is received from a poultry farm, the Vaulted Deep facility immediately injects it into the earth, reducing the possibility of lingering odors.
Some in Accomack, however, question the possible risks to well water should Vaulted Deep begin operating in the area. Sue Mastyl, a member of Virginia’s Eastern Shore Ground Water Committee, points out that even though the waste is being deposited thousands of feet below, the tube depositing it still has to pierce through the drinking water level.
"Our drinking water only goes down to 300 feet,” Mastyl said. “So it's well below our aquifer but there are still questions as to whether or not that would interfere or interact with our aquifer."
Morille says the disposal system uses a pipe-in-pipe design and relies on both geological and engineering barriers to ensure no waste comes into contact with the aquifer.
“We continuously monitor our wells to protect groundwater,” Morille tells WBOC. In fact, Vaulted Deep claims their well system protects drinking water by removing waste that could leak excess nutrients into groundwater, increasing nitrogen and phosphorous levels and leading to contamination.
Mastyl also said the committee wants to do its own due-diligence to see if there really is an excess of organic waste in Accomack County that would make Vaulted Deep's project necessary.
While Accomack County residents and officials weigh the benefits and risks of the project, Vaulted Deep faces an initial barrier in the county’s zoning laws. Currently, there are no zoning uses that apply, and therefore would allow, the installation or operation of the well in Accomack
“You either have a use that’s allowed by right, a use that’s allowed by special permit, or a use that’s allowed by conditional permit,” Accomack County Administrator Mike Mason tells WBOC. None of those currently apply to Vaulted Deep’s proposal.
Vaulted Deep is now currently in talks with the county to appeal for a change to the zoning text to allow the project. The company also plans to host a community open house to answer any questions residents have in person, according to their presentation to the Virginia’s Eastern Shore Ground Water Committee given on Oct. 21.
