Feasibility study set for biosolids composting facility in St. Lawrence County

BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The Development Authority of the North Country will provide a feasibility study for a large-scale biosolids composting facility for St. Lawrence County, which may eventually be able to provide the region's farms with a locally sourced fertilizer material.

The DANC executive board approved a technical services agreement with the county to provide the study at their meeting Thursday, Aug. 25.

The study, which will cost the county $30,000, spans from July 2022 to December 2022 and will consider the feasibility of constructing a centralized facility in the county.

After approval, one of the board members inquired if the biosolids facility would be of any benefit to farms around the region.

“There definitely could be benefits to farms,” responded Carrie M. Tuttle, DANC chief operating officer.

“The study is looking at creating what’s called a Class A biosolid, which would be a fertilizer material that could be used for farms. It could replace existing fertilizer,” Tuttle said.

“That will be part of what gets looked at in the study, the quantity, the biosolids that get produced and whether or not there would be a fee charged to sell that material to farms, but it would have a value,” Tuttle said.

She said that there is some concern from the farmers of the county that fertilizer has been difficult to source with the current state of the supply chain and issues happening overseas.

“This would be a local option,” she said.

She said that another benefit to the facility is that currently much of the material that would be processed at the facility into a usable and valuable product would end up in the local landfill.

Under other St. Lawrence County business, the DANC board also approved the organization providing an amendment to a technical services agreement with the Town of Louisville on its water system. The total agreement will cost $18,000 and the services will be provided from Aug. 23, 2022 to Aug. 22, 2027.