Fish poop could spread drilling wealth

From pit to plots
For Woiwode’s project, thousands of gallons of coal-bed methane water are being taken from wells dotting a local rancher’s land to the fish facility. A 15-foot wide tank that is home to most of the fish there is heated to a comfortable 83 degrees for optimal growing conditions, he says. Their waste ultimately ends up in a nearby lined pit, where it is mixed with more methane water. This will be used on the test plots.

Dan Smith, interim director of the university’s Sheridan Research and Extension Center and an agronomist involved with the project, said researchers have several goals. One is to see whether the fish manure will minimize salt buildup in soils irrigated with methane water. Another is to see which crops could be grown, or perhaps even thrive, using that method.

“This trial here will tell us a little more about how these things will fare in this type of environment,” he said. If it’s successful, it would still have to be adapted to the particular soils in a given area. Soil types vary widely in the basin.

Marathon Oil Co. operates the wells Woiwode is tapping for the project, and the company’s Dave Searle said the firm is as interested as anyone in the results.

“A lot of people, I don’t think, understand how much science we try to explore,” he said.

Rancher Roger Brinkerhoff, who has land involved in the project, said he’s interested in more beneficial uses for the water.

“If the grass comes back, you’re happy,” he said.

Win-win goal
If it works, Woiwode said the project could be a winner for all involved. He said it could lead to higher-value irrigated crops for landowners, provide another water disposal option for energy companies and give his company, AquaMatrix International, another way to raise tilapia.

The market for the small fish is huge, he said. More than 200 million pounds were eaten in the United States last year though just a fraction of that was produced domestically, he said.

Woiwode said his company, which, after years of study, developed a method by which fish could be raised in water from methane wells, is interested in tapping the regional tilapia market. Nearby Sheridan College has a fish processing facility that could be used in the effort, he said.

Not that it will be easy, he said. So far, it will take about 1,000 pounds of fish, which weigh 1.5 to 2 pounds fully grown, to provide enough poop to irrigate just an acre of land. But Woiwode said the work should be economically viable in the future if all parties cooperate, and that the project could provide a sound alternative to storing or wasting the water.

“I don’t see it as the be-all and end-all or the silver bullet,” he said. “We’re trying to build an agronomic model.”

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