U.S. Water News Online
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A federal Agriculture Department scientist says poultry growers can reduce ammonia levels in waste by treating litter with alum.
Philip Moore says use of alum -- the common name for aluminum sulfate -- also lowers the amount of soluble phosphorus in litter, and that's good for streams that take runoff from rains that have fallen on litter.
Moore works at the USDA's research unit at Fayetteville. He said he first looked for a way to bind phosphorus in 1992, after working in eastern Arkansas, where row crops had depleted phosphorus in the soil.
He tried about 100 compounds and found alum showed the most promise, Moore recalled, then conducted extensive studies on alum specifically.
Moore concluded, based on small plot studies, that concentrations of soluble phosphorus in runoff water from fields where litter treated with alum had been applied can be decreased by as much as 87 percent.
The soluble form of phosphorus -- which he said comprises 80 to 90 percent of what's contained in runoff -- is what causes problems in lakes and rivers, Moore said, because it is consumed by algae that bloom and despoil the water.
Moore said use of alum also produces higher crop yields because it retains more nitrogen in the litter, by reducing loss of nitrogen as a component of ammonia.
A typical poultry house will lose about 2 tons of nitrogen each year as ammonia produced by the litter is vented outside, but houses that have been treated with alum lose only about 1,000 pounds, Moore said.
Alum is also effective in removing heavy metals and naturally-occurring estrogen from the waste stream, according to Moore.
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