Beneficial Continued from Page 7
reverse osmosis to reach the standard for drinking. “One Central Valley grower had high nitrates in their well water,” Skardon said. “Rather than drill a new well, he can remove nitrates and arsenic and then run it through reverse osmosis. It leaves you with clean water and a brine that is high in minerals, but not high in nitrates. The nitrates are turned into nitrogen gas and CO2.” The advantage of removing nitrates before reverse osmosis, he said, would be that the processmitigates the problem of having wastewater with high levels of
contaminants as a byproduct of creating pure water. Skardon said nitrate removal biore- actor technology is adaptable for many uses, and scalable for operations of many sizes. “We design, build and operate nitrate removal systems for wastewater andwell water applications,” he said “Our sys- tems are scalable from 5 to 800 gallons per minute and can remove up to 99% of the nitrate in under two hours.” Farmers come to Skardon’s firm with a recent water sample showing nitrate,
phosphorus, pH, conduct ivi ty and turbidity, plus flow-rate information showing the volume of water required for treatment. The Tailwater Systems team then de- signs a suitable bioreactor and either in- stalls it or, for larger projects, contracts for the installation. Once the neededbac- teria are in the bioreactor, it takes them from one to three weeks to colonize the bioreactor and get the system up and running, Skardon said. ( Bo b J o hn s o n i s a r e p o r t e r i n Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.) 2019 that now stipulate any water from an open source—such as a canal, reser- voir or river—must be treated to ensure it is pathogen-free if it will be applied via overhead irrigation within 21 days before harvest.” Farmers are also required to test wa- ter throughout their irrigation systems to ensure the water treatment effectively removes pathogens, he said. “It’s simply wrong for anyone to claim that leafy greens farms in California are not testing their water—because they definitely are,” Horsfall added. The LGMA said it continues to improve metrics in all areas of its food-safety pro- gramandhas just approved several addi- tional changes in the area of farm water use, which will also become part of the government audits. “Water is such an important part of food safety on lettuce farms,” Horsfall sa id. “LGMA member compani es are working hard every day to imple- ment these safe farming methods to prevent illnesses.” The LGMA in California currently represents 99% of the leafy greens pro- duced in the state, which accounts for 80% of the lettuce and leafy greens con- sumed in the U.S. The LGMA program in Arizona represents another 10% of the nation’s lettuce and has similar wa- ter testing requirements, the organiza- tion said.
water coming out of the containers, treat it and use it again,” Skardon said. Skardon said he bel ieves his sys- tem could also help turn some of the large volumes of wastewater gener- ated by food processing plants into animal feed. “You can have up to a million gallons of water a day coming off a food pro- cessing plant,” he said. “We can pick the stream with the highest organic matter, remove the solids and sell it as feed.” These helpful bacteria may even be able to play a role in the holy grail of agricultural water treatment—lowering nitrates in underground water to the safe drinking water standard of 10 parts per million. “We had a meeting with the chief engineer of the state drinking water division, and he said if we could help the farmers reopen some of the wells i t would make a huge di f ference,” Skardon said. Strict regulations regarding drinking water treatment might make it imprac- tical to use the tailwater system to make high-nitratewell water fit for human con- sumption, he said. “In order to provide drinking water, all the equipment that touches the wa- ter has to be certified as free of lead and other substances,” Skardon said, adding that the treatment process also must be approved by state regulators. But he said the tailwater system could play a role as a preliminary step to lower nitrates before well water is treated by
LGMA provides data on water standards Data released by the California Leafy GreensMarketingAgreement shows high compliance with food-safety practices involving water. said the audits reviewed a total of 6,348 water checkpoints and found 64 check- points out of compliance.
“This shows farmers are fully compli- ant 99% of the time and indicates LGMA members are doing a very good jobof im- plementing these new metrics in their operations,” Horsfall said. LGMA members are required to cor- rect all citations for non-compliance, he said, noting that of the 64 citations issued for non-compliance with water metrics, 25 were “veryminor” and could be corrected during the audit. The remaining 39 requiredaCorrective Action Plan be submitted. Horsfall said all those corrections had been rever- ified by auditors from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, “bringing all members into full compli- ance with the LGMA’s requirements to ensure the safety of water used in farming leafy greens.” Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not finalized wa- ter-testing requirements for produce under its federal regulations, Horsfall said the LGMA has required extensive water testing since the programwas cre- ated in 2007. “In the years since the LGMAwas cre- ated, several updates have been made to required food-safety practices under the program,” he said. “This includes sweeping new improvements adopted in
The LGMA—a food-safety program that verifies use of science-based prac- tices on farms growing leafy greens— said last week recent water-safety standards represent “a further strength- ening of what were already the most stringent measures required of any produce commodity.” The new wa t e r s t anda rds we re added to the LGMA audit checkl ist in April, the organization said. Since then, government auditors have con- ducted 69 audits of LGMA members to verify compliance with 92 food-safe- ty checkpoints for water included in each audit. Scott Horsfall, CEO of the agreement,
JOIN
C ALIFORNIA T OMATO G ROWERS A SSOCIATION
Working on behalf of Processed Tomato Growers STRONGER TOGETHER! For more information on joining CTGA
-Reduce Toxins, pH, Scale, Corrosion, Iron Bacteria -Increase Life & GPM -24/7 Well Treatment -Nitrogen Management “The solution to your water problems.”
Our patented, computerized technology changes the molecular structure of water, soil, and tissue.
MIKE MONTNA 916-925-0225
(559) 645-1462 www.waterchangers.com
8 Ag Alert October 7, 2020
Powered by FlippingBook