GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1999

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1454

Short Title:  Animal Waste Tech. Demonstration Funds.  	(Public)

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Sponsors: Representative Tolson.

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Referred to:  Appropriations.

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April 29, 1999

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO DEMONSTRATE THE APPLICATION OF A CERTAIN ANIMAL WASTE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY USED IN COMBINATION WITH INTEGRATED FARMING METHODS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina for the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center of North Carolina State University the sum of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) for the 1999-2000 fiscal year and the sum of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) for the 2000-2001 fiscal year for a full-scale demonstration and research project of a bioprocess called thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAnD), which was developed and patented at North Carolina State University and which represents a low-cost, highly efficient process to convert animal waste to biogas, used in combination with integrated farming methods at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services's Upper Control Plain Research Station located in Rocky Mount.  This project will demonstrate all of the following:
(1)	The application of TAnD technology to treat animal waste.
(2)	The uses of biogas energy.
(3)	The amount of animal waste reduction that can be achieved through the use of integrated farming methods.
(4)	What improvements can result from various odor control and pathogen control methods.
(5)	The environmental and economic benefits of combining swine, aquaculture, and horticulture crop production.
(6)	The economic viability of, and the potential for, commercial development of the combination of TAnD technology and integrated farming systems.
Section 2.  Beginning November 1, 1999, and twice each year thereafter, the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service shall report its findings and recommendations to the Environmental Review Commission and the Fiscal Research Division.
Section 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1999.