The Company’s environmental monitoring, which has been conducted since 2000, includes the following elements:
- local monitoring of groundwater through examining water samples from piezometers located in fields fertilized with liquid manure and near liquid manure tanks or farms examining the quality of groundwater in deep water wells located on farms and recording the quantities of water consumed
- recording the changes in static and dynamic water level in our own deep water wells
- examining the quality of water in selected rivers and streams running within the range of possible impact of the company’s facilities
- examining the quality of liquid waste drained by the company to the water, ground and municipal sewage system, and recording the load and quantity of drained liquid waste
- examining the noise level around the company’s facilities
- measurement and recording of the volume of gas and dust emissions from the company’s facilities
- recording the quantity and types of generated waste and monitoring the methods of their utilisation, including waste recycling within the company
Due to the use of liquid manure as fertilizer, our attention is focused on the quality of groundwater and surface waters in the area of the company’s operations.
In 2010, we expanded the groundwater monitoring system with three new piezometers located around the farm and biogas plant in Nacław, and extended the testing of local watercourses and water holes by performing additional analyses of the waters in the Mszanka river in Nacław, in ditches in Uniechówek, and flowing out of Lake Gwiazda in Płaszczyca.
 Water testing in Uniechówek
The monitoring of hydrological conditions is supplemented with regular testing of soil for macro- and microelement content, carried out for the purposes of the fertilization plans prepared by the Crop Production Department.
Long-term studies and observations have determined that the company’s operations do not result in negative changes to the environment.
Atmospheric gas and dust emissions
The more important environmental aspects of arable production include the emission of ammonia from animal dung and the occurrence of unpleasant odours, as well as high consumption of diesel oil by farming machinery and tractors, which generates considerable amounts of combustion gases.
Poldanor has engaged and continues to engage in various activities aimed at reducing all atmospheric emissions, and our best solution which has helped reduce the emission of odours and ammonia during field fertilization is the development of biogas plants, where fresh liquid manure is subjected to fermentation and degassing, and the produced biogas is also cleared of sulphur compounds which are then used for fertilization as an important macroelement.
Emission measurement in Nacław
A 2010 study of gas emissions during biogas combustion at the Nacław plant has confirmed expectations concerning the extensive possibility of reducing atmospheric emissions of pollutants by applying the processes of liquid manure fermentation and biogas purification before combustion.
The Company has effectively limited the emission of air pollutants by:
- eliminating the vaporization of stored liquid manure by covering up all tanks and introducing hydromixing under cover,
- using specialist fertilization devices for the application of liquid manure to the soil, coupled with cultivation units, which limits vaporization from the ground surface,
- pumping the liquid manure through underground pipelines directly from storage tanks to the fields, which has replaced the use of tank trucks and reduced the emission of fumes (the company uses underground pumping pipelines installed in the fields, with a total length of approx. 36.7 km, covering an area of about 3,500 hectares),
- simplified cultivation limiting the number of machine passes on fields, which further reduces the emission of fumes,
- limiting feed dusting through containment of feed-producing, storing, and dispensing equipment (the use of feed-conveying systems and specialist transport),
- shutdown of conventional boiler units and operation of oil-fired boiler plants fuelled with lightweight heating oil with low sulphur and LPG content, the use of biogas for cogenerative production of electricity and heat.
The above activities eliminate liquid manure vaporization and aerosol generation in the air during fertilization, reduce emissions of gases (including ammonia and hydrogen sulphide), and also significantly reduce the emission of pollutants generated in the combustion of diesel oil by tractors and farming machinery, and the emission of gases produced in the combustion of coal and culm.
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