Company looks at Grand Lake St. Marys for waste-to-energy facility
Dayton Daily News – GRAND LAKE ST. MARYS — An Ohio company says it can parlay the problem of too much animal waste winding up in Grand Lake St. Marys into a new facility that could turn the waste into energy and add new jobs in the area.
It’s a waste-to-energy methane digester that would produce usable methane from the manure. It could be the fifth such project for the company, Quasar Energy Group of Cleveland. It’s seeking a federal grant of $1 million for the $2.24 million facility.
Farm runoff is a major cause of a cyanobacteria outbreak at the lake that closed down a $200 million tourism industry last summer and forced state officials to scramble for a solution. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Thursday he has urged U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to support the methane digester project to reduce harmful algal blooms, like the cyanobacteria in Grand Lake.
