Buzz Hoerr, Author at ElectroCell Technologies

Biosolids Treatment Trial Results Exceed Expectations

Buzz Hoerr — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 17:45:07 +0000

ElectroCell’s Bio-Electric technology has been used to significantly reduce nutrients, odor, and pathogens in livestock manure for several years. The objective of this pilot was to determine if similar results were achievable in biosolids. Trial results exceeded expectations. After treatment and settling, total phosphorus (P) was reduced by more than 80% and fecal coliform was reduced below laboratory detection limits.

Click here to download the case study results: ElectroCell TCA Case Study V3Web

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ElectroCell a Member of the Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Trading Plan Workgroup

Buzz Hoerr — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 16:38:54 +0000

ElectroCell Technologies continues to take a leadership role in the development of the Chesapeake Bay nutrient credit trading program/plan, as a member of the workgroup which is bringing the states and EPA together to address the remediation of conditions in the Bay. The World Resources Institute (WRI), based in Washington DC, recently hosted a meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Credit Workgroup. The five states which border the Bay have trading programs in various stages of development. Pennsylvania is the leader, with an open credit auction, through which ElectroCell has sold credits, making it the first technology company in the US to have sold quantified nutrient reductions in the form of monetized units. ElectroCell CEO Buzz Hoerr has 15 years of clean water advocacy experience as Chair of the Vermont Citizen Advisory Committee on the Future of Lake Champlain.

Mr. Hoerr addressed the recent WRI meeting on the subject of Best Management Practices, noting that BMP’s are an inconsistent method at best. BMP’s, including no-till cultivation, stream setbacks, and other passive actions, are important conservation tools. But under some circumstances, water overwhelms these passive methods. In 2010, for example, the Susquehanna Valley and other watersheds that feed the Chesapeake experienced twice the normal rainfall amounts, much of it in heavy, short-term pulses like Hurricane Irene.

The result is a multi-year influx of excess nutrients, which form an 85-mile long plume of sediment flowing into the Chesapeake Bay (pictured in green, above). According to Mr. Hoerr, relying on passive BMP’s and accounting for nutrient reductions based on theoretical models, not reality, will not solve the problem.Mr. Hoerr noted that ElectroCell treatments sequester nutrients in the bottom of pits and lagoons, and we measure those reductions in every tanker load spread on fields. One EPA regulator commented that the only way they can sleep at night is knowing the nutrients never got on the ground in the first place. It’s time for EPA, the Bay Foundation and other NGO’s to realize the old ways are not working. We need new methods that are truly accountable. This is the only way we’re going to solve this problem.

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ElectroCell Wins Pennsylvania Award for Environmental Excellence

Buzz Hoerr — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 16:32:02 +0000

ElectroCell Technologies, Inc. received the prestigious Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence for its work on Snavely Farms in Elizabethtown. The Governor’s Award highlights the best in environmental innovation and expertise in the Commonwealth. Those of us who care deeply about improving environmental quality applaud these organizations and individuals ElectroCell was given the award for work on Snavely Farms using our Bio-Electric mobile treatment, which treats hog manure in the farm’s storage lagoon. The system transforms hog manure into a more effective, biologically-active fertilizer that improves soil and crop health. Using treated manure significantly reduces odors even during land application. James Snavely, co-owner of a 100-acre family farm with his wife Paula, says the difference in my soils has been really amazing. Crops and soils are healthier, and my neighbors are much happier with me during spreading time!