Enumclaw Plateau Dairy Digester Project

The King Conservation District, in cooperation with local dairies and other partners, including Washington State University, Seattle City Light, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, King County Dept. of Natural Resources and Parksand King County Dept. of Community Trade and Economic Development, are examining the possibility of building a dairy biogas digester in south King County on the Enumclaw Plateau. The Enumclaw Plateau is home to most of the commercial dairies in King County. This dairy community welcomes the digester project, viewing it as one way to maintain viable dairy businesses on the Enumclaw Plateau for current and future generations.

The dairy biogas digester project would convert methane gas derived from dairy manure into electricity. The solids generated during the digesting process could be used as compost and the residual liquid would be used liquid fertilizer by the local Enumclaw Plateau dairies.

King County recently received a USDA Rural Business Enterprise grant to identify a manure digester system that would work best for the Enumclaw Plateau and to locate a site for the facility. One such digester system under consideration is an anaerobic digester. This system is addressed in a feasibility study completed by Environmental Resource Recovery Group, which determined that a centralized digester could be developed to service a number of dairies on the Enumclaw Plateau.

For general information on biogas recovery systems, visit the Environmental Protection Agency’s AgSTAR program (Methane Recovery Technologies) site at http://epa.gov/agstar/

Contact Ann Marie Magnochi for more information 

(425) 277-5581 ext. 116 

Ann Marie Magnochi