The following post is related the Center’s work on a Health Impact Assessment of a proposed biomass-powered energy facility in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The facility was proposed as a potential remedy to the issue of nutrient concentration related to trends in livestock production. Each post in the series describes one particular aspect of interest from the Center’s analysis.
Arsenic in Poultry
Until recently, a common feed additive called Roxarsone that contained arsenic was used regularly in poultry production. Research by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the VCU Center for Environmental Studies (CES) confirm that as late as 2008, the litter in the Valley did have trace metals in it.
In the summer of 2011, the manufacturer of Roxarsone pulled it from the market after the FDA found evidence of small (though safe) levels of arsenic in the livers of birds that were fed Roxarsone. However, the absence of Roxarsone from poultry production in Virginia is as of right now a voluntary action. There is no state or federal law that prevents its return.
Air Modeling for this Project
As with all other pollutants modeled for this project, arsenic concentrations were projected from six different locations across Augusta County. There is no formal proposal for a facility and no official location is known. In order to estimate the effect of the location of the facility, CES ran the model from six different hypothetical locations across Augusta. The locations are shown in the map to the right.
Arsenic Emissions from a Poultry Litter-to-Energy Facility
Estimated arsenic emissions are based off the emissions from the existing poultry litter-to-energy facilities in the United Kingdom and in Minnesota. These estimates come from a time in which Roxarsone was available and in use so they probably overestimate the emissions that would occur in the Valley.
According to the models, the highest maximum emissions would come from a facility located in north Augusta, the location right on the border with Rockingham County (see map below). According to EPA estimates, emissions from a facility located at this site would mean an additional cancer risk of less than one in one million. Again, this probably overestimates the risk due to arsenic because it assumes the birds are still being feed Roxarsone.
It should also be mentioned that because arsenic is a naturally occurring metal, any risk from the facility would be in addition to the risk that already exists from the concentration of arsenic that is already in the air. According to estimates from the EPA, the highest already existing arsenic concentrations near or in Augusta County are in Waynesboro and southern Rockingham County.