EIC Assists in Creation of Emissions Estimator Tools

The Egg Industry Center has recently worked with United Egg Producers and their environmental consultant, Tom Hebert, to find a solution for egg farmers who will need to begin reporting ammonia emissions maybe as soon as June 2, 2017. This reporting requirement is due to a change in the 2008 ruling that provided exemptions to all animal feeding operations from reporting under CERCLA (the Comprehensive Emergency Response Compensation and Liability Act) and EPCRA (the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act). This change means that animal feeding operations with ammonia emissions in excess of 100 pounds per day need to report to federal, state and local authorities.

The first step in this process is for facilities to know if the parameters of their facility cause them to have to report. To estimate emissions based on the different types of operations, several ammonia estimator tools have been developed. They can be used as follows:

• Layer Ammonia Emissions Estimator Tool can be customized by housing type, inventory and manure storage system. (NOTE: Cage-free floor system barns with no manure removal system should use this form using the high-rise housing system fields to calculate their emissions.)
• Pullet Ammonia Emissions Estimator Tool for Weekly Site Removal can be customized by pullet age and is based on daily manure removal from the living spaces and weekly removal from the farm.
• Pullet Ammonia Emissions Estimator Tool can be customized by put age and manure removal for either no or long-term on-site manure storage.

These tools, and any subsequent updates, are housed in the EIC Research Library under the Environment topic area.