Manure Project Called Dairyman’s Godsend : Environment: Plan to convert cows’ waste to a salable soil additive proposed. It could solve a threat to the safety of the Inland Empire water supply.

They stand, shoulder to shoulder, on the sloping pastures of the Chino valley--thousands and thousands of cows.

Painstakingly bred through sophisticated artificial insemination techniques, these bovines--numbering 300,000 in all--are champion milk producers, making the region home to some of the top dairies in the world.

But the docile animals pump out something else as well: manure. Mountains of manure. Two tons per cow per year, to be exact.

This waste does more than create a smelly mess. Over the past three decades, salts and nitrogen in the manure have seeped into the underground aquifer, gradually fouling the water source for 500,000 inland area residents.

Because the Chino water basin ultimately flows into Orange County, the water supply for another 1.8 million people there is also in peril.

On Wednesday, a possible solution emerged to the confounding dairy waste dilemma, which environmental agencies have called one of the more serious ground water quality problems in the Inland Empire.

In a joint venture with the dairy industry, officials at the Chino Basin Municipal Water District announced plans to open a composting plant that would convert the cow manure into a salable soil additive.

The project could cut by 90% the amount of waste that now enters the water through surface runoff and seepage from the 340 farms, which authorities characterize as the densest concentration of dairies in the world.

In addition, the project would provide disposal for the growing volume of sludge generated by sewage treatment plants in western San Bernardino County. The plants produce more than 120 tons of the black, wet sludge per day, and it costs the district more than $1 million annually to get rid of it.

“I think this is a win-win situation for everyone,” county Supervisor Larry Walker said at a press briefing on the project. “We’re talking about taking manure off the dairies’ hands, mixing it with sludge, processing it in a natural way and shipping it as a profitable material out of the area.”

Dairy operators welcome the proposal as a virtual godsend. In decades past, Chino’s dairies disposed of manure by spreading it on pastures or selling it to farmers. But residential development gobbled up spare pastureland, and the decline of agriculture killed the local market for manure.

Consequently, today’s dairies must pay upwards of $20 per cow per year to have the manure hauled away.

Regulators, while understanding of the ranchers’ plight, have nonetheless been quick to punish those who violate laws governing the handling of dairy waste. This year, fines of up to $40,000 have been imposed on dairymen whose waste management was deemed negligent.

Manure arouses alarm because of its high content of salts and nitrates. High levels of nitrates in drinking water can cause “blue baby syndrome,” a deadly disease that strikes infants by robbing their blood of oxygen.

The contamination already has prompted the closure of numerous wells in the Chino basin. And water from many others must be mixed with clean water before it is suitable for consumption.

Frustrated, both the water district and dairymen sought help from state Sen. Ruben Ayala (D-Chino) 18 months ago. Ayala initially hoped to run a composting facility at the California Institute for Men, using prison labor.

But a bill to authorize the use of inmates was killed in the Assembly after protests from organized labor.

Under the plan announced Wednesday, an independent contractor will be hired to run the composting plant on a 100-acre parcel to be purchased by the district near the California Institute for Women at Frontera.

Edward A. Girard, a board member of the Chino Basin Water District, said the composting project would solve the agency’s sludge disposal problem for at least 10 years.

In addition, he said solving the waste problem was “critical” to future plans to use the basin as a storage tank for water harvested in wet years and saved for use during droughts.