OLIVIA
— From an environmental standpoint, Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative had an excellent yr.
The cooperative has maintained a string of years wherein it met its environmental compliance targets, in keeping with info offered to the Renville County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday by Vidyasagar “Sakar” Sunkavalli, the co-op’s environmental supervisor.
Nevertheless, it proved a pricey yr for the cooperative to take action.
Sunkavalli in his report described the previous yr as one of many “most tough and difficult” years. The corporate made loads of pricey selections to guarantee that it maintained environmental compliance, he instructed commissioners.
Growers produced the biggest crop within the cooperative’s 47-year historical past in 2021. Growers averaged a document 36.5 tons of sugar beets per acre. The shareholders planted 121,385 acres, however have been capable of harvest about 97,000 acres. They left about 20% of the crop within the area.
Assembly environmental necessities was one of many components affecting how a lot of the crop might be harvested and processed. The processing fee must be tempered in order that the wastewater might be most successfully handled to fulfill requirements.
Sunkavalli offered his report back to the County Board as a part of a requirement within the county allow permitting the cooperative’s processing facility in Renville to discharge into County Ditch 45, which can also be Sacred Coronary heart Creek.
The corporate has been discharging into the system for 16 years. Bio-monitoring carried out by an impartial firm has discovered that its discharges have had no measurable affect on aquatic organisms, in keeping with the report.
Sunkavalli mentioned the corporate made selections to decelerate processing charges to guarantee that it didn’t exceed its allowed effluent ranges. There have been cases when it needed to cease discharges when the extent of natural matter within the wastewater was creeping up in order that the problems might be fastened, he defined.
There have been a wide range of components that added to the challenges of assembly environmental targets. Final yr’s drought had lowered water ranges in its 4 wastewater ponds. Consequently, the wastewater plant couldn’t start full operations till Nov. 13, when it normally begins in September.
Total, there have been 3.6 million tons of beets harvested. Resulting from pure shrinkage, the precise beets sliced totaled 3.2 million tons, in keeping with the report.
With its distant piling websites storing a document crop for processing, heat winter and spring climate elevated spoilage points. The corporate made selections to shut the valves and retain the stormwater on the Hen Island, Clara Metropolis West, Buffalo Lake and Murdock websites.
For the primary time ever, a brand new allow from the Minnesota Air pollution Management Company permits the cooperative to use the stormwater from these websites on land. Prior to now, the corporate has needed to truck the water to the manufacturing facility’s wastewater plant. That’s pricey, Sunkavalli famous, pointing to gas costs.
The corporate discovered that land utility has its prices as effectively. It was troublesome and expensive to safe land at present commodity costs, he mentioned.
Sunkavalli instructed the commissioners that the corporate additionally handled provide chain, labor scarcity and COVID-related challenges by way of all of it.
“Every thing appears to be appearing towards what we wish to do: The appropriate factor,” Sunkavalli mentioned.
One of many challenges proved to be a requirement of its new discharge allow. It requires that the corporate carry out leakage assessments on every of its 4 wastewater ponds. Maintaining a pond full and untouched for a prolonged check interval contributed to odor points, he mentioned.
Total, the corporate discharged 233 million gallons of handled wastewater into County Ditch 45. It was allowed to discharge as much as 3.5 million gallons a day in the course of the processing. Its discharges averaged 1.47 million gallons a day.
The corporate earned a document 18,000 phosphorus credit as its growers planted a document 80,000 acres of canopy crops within the spring to scale back runoff of the nutrient.
The corporate was additionally profitable in persevering with a development towards lowering the dissolved minerals, or salinity, of the water being discharged from the manufacturing facility website.
“(It was) actually a difficult yr, but it surely didn’t come at the price of noncompliance,” Sunkavalli mentioned.
Chair Randy Kramer requested Sunkavalli whether or not the corporate would retain the dedication to environmental compliance beneath its new CEO and president, Paul Fry. Fry succeeded Steve Domm, who had dedicated the corporate to full environmental compliance.
Sunkavalli mentioned Fry brings expertise coping with lots of the identical environmental challenges as he did in his former position with Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton, North Dakota. The environmental supervisor mentioned he has been assured the corporate’s new chief stays dedicated to the targets.
