Talk:Anaerobic lagoon

November 2011 revision
This stub was edited as a part of the Environmental Disruptors of Development course at Boston College. Because the original stub contained no citations, have significantly revised it to reflect information based on research of scientific studies and journal articles. If I have forgotten to include something, or if i have unintentionally misinterpreted any information please feel free to comment or notify me. Thank you so much for your help! Silverglass (talk) 03:52, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

I think it would be better to add more to the first line that describes more than just a “basin filled with excrement” because readers might be turned off by a graphic image that may come to mind when thinking about the topic. Perhaps you could mention anaerobic respiration in the first line so readers can understand the origin of the name. The introduction has a great sequence, I like how you talk about the different animals and the reason why increases in manure have occurred. Also, I like the description of the process of the lagoons. If you could, maybe add in how feces have a high oxygen demand. As a reader, I’m not sure exactly how this is possible: a one line explanation would eliminate any doubts. I appreciate the toxic fumes section with specific descriptions of the dangerous chemicals because people with differing scientific background knowledge can know exactly what’s bad about the lagoons. In the hormones section, it would be interesting to know the effects of the 3 types of estrogens. The numbers give a specific range for the concentrations but I feel like an average Wikipedia reader would be more interested in knowing the effects of the hormones. In the heavy metals section, I think it would be a good to describe the toxicity of some of the metals. A description of all metals would be too much information but I think one or two would be interesting to read about. Regulation: has there been no more effort to stop anaerobic lagoons? If so, that’s a shame. If not, mention them! Also, are any social movements against anaerobic lagoons? Mention those if they exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rockaxis3 (talk • contribs) 20:03, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

You did a really great job expanding this article, and bringing to light the ‘other side’ of the argument regarding the negative impacts of anaerobic lagoons. I have a few minor comments, mostly about some clarification on a few pints.

Some points for revision: -You start off the article with a good explanation of what an anaerobic lagoon is, but I noticed that the sentence: “Sometimes the slurry is placed in an intermediary holding tank under or next to the barns before it is deposited in a lagoon.” broke your flow a little, since you go on to explain the process of anaerobic lagoons in the article, would it find a better place there?

Introduction: -In 2006 the United states produced 133 million tons of manure per year In 2006 they produced 133 million tons of manure? Or starting 2006 this has become the trend? (just a little clarification here)

-Unlike manure produced in a conventional farm, CAFO manure cannot all be used as direct fertilizer on agricultural land due to the poor quality of the manure.

I can see the points that you are trying to make, but I did get a little confused the first time I read it. I think maybe including the end product of anaerobic lagoons a little earlier would help the reader understand the difference between the two manures produced. Since the end product of an anaerobic lagoon is usable manure/fertilizer, maybe you could emphasize that the harm comes from the treatment process.

Design:

4 components of determining size of a lagoon: maybe provide a brief description of what each of these criteria mean? It may be unnecessary, but I found that it would have been more helpful to know what each of these criteria entail.

Disadvantages of construction: Would harboring a lot of harmful organisms, as well as releasing toxic gases into the environment be considered a disadvantage?. -Weather and other environmental elements can strongly affect the safety and efficacy of anaerobic lagoons. Is that a disadvantage of construction? or is it a factor affecting efficiency of the lagoon? -Manure used as fertilizer has low nutrient availability? Again is that a disadvantage of building the lagoon? Doesn’t the lagoon make previously unusable manure usable? -These points are valid but seem to pertain more to a comparison between manure produced by conventional farming vs manure form anaerobic lagoons.

Health effects:

Toxic fumes: -children asthma rates consistently elevated. Was there any stat that could be stated? I think that a stat here would give the paragraph a bit more support.

Ammonia: NH4+-N -> NH3 + H+ The format of chemical equation, maybe could include it on its own line.

Recently there has been interest technology which would capture methane produced from lagoons and sell it as energy.

This seems like it could make for an interesting topic in a “current research” section.

Hormones:

Ethynylestradiol? Luhizi (talk) 18:26, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Slurry pit be merged into Anaerobic lagoon. At present, slurry pit is a stub with only UK references, while Anaerobic lagoon is much longer, but has only US references and generally has a US-specific slant, particularly concerning legislation. Qwfp (talk) 14:46, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

This makes sense to me. A slurry pit is most certainly an anaerobic lagoon. Adding an additional section for slurry pit, and expanding the references will definitely make the interest in this article stretch across country boundaries! Good luck with the merger! Hakeleh (talk) 15:10, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

A slurry pit is most definitely NOT an anaerobic lagoon. A slurry pit is designed to contain only manure and process wastewater, and MAY capture precipitation if not covered by a building or other structure. A slurry pit is not designed to facilitate any treatment of the manure (i.e. it is not designed to facilitate anaerobic decomposition of the manure solids). A properly designed anaerobic lagoon is sized based on the volatile solids loading rate (as dictated by engineering design standards developed from scientific research) that will most effectively promote the "digestion" or breakdown of solids by anaerobic bacteria within the system. AgEngrProf (talk) 02:32, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

EDD Edit Suggestion
Overall, I think this article is really solid and has a nice flow; the information is very well presented. However, I think it could be improved by a few minor changes.

Firstly, it seems like it would be useful if there were links to the references for the information in the introductory paragraph so that one would know where it came from.

Secondly, in the Background section, I think the following statement could be addressed/improved.
 * "Unlike manure produced in a conventional farm, CAFO manure cannot all be used as direct fertilizer on agricultural land due to the poor quality of the manure"

This seems like it could be slightly more clear, I assume what it means is that the quality of manure is poor relative to manure from other sources, but it would be useful to have some specific facts about what exactly the difference is. Alternatively, if sources for that information can't be found, I think this paragraph might be improved by removing this sentence. Most of the sources I looked at seemed to cite the high volume of produced manure as the reason why most couldn't be used, without referring to quality, so that information might suffice.

--AELie515 (talk) 01:44, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 7 external links on Anaerobic lagoon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120401150347/http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/leeds/lagoons.pdf to http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/leeds/lagoons.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120425130422/http://www.farmsafety.ca/public/factsheets/manure_gas.pdf to http://www.farmsafety.ca/public/factsheets/manure_gas.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120425091443/http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/19217/1/IND44102468.pdf to http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/19217/1/IND44102468.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055834/https://web.duke.edu/mms190/hogfarming/ to https://web.duke.edu/mms190/hogfarming/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120522065400/http://agrienvarchive.ca/download/fleming_efp.pdf to http://agrienvarchive.ca/download/fleming_efp.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111103021149/http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/hogging-it-estimates-of.html to http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/hogging-it-estimates-of.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111122112200/http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/afo/aforule.cfm to http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/afo/aforule.cfm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 13:29, 4 July 2017 (UTC)