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• Treatment of manures and slurries to remove P and N.
• The transfer of treated manures out of the region.
The requirement to treat depends on the size of the herd on farm and the extent of
the manure N overloading in the canton. The largest pig producers (e.g. producing
> 25,000 kg manure N) in sensitive cantons are obliged to both separate slurries for
P removal (80% of the manure P must be removed) and treat the liquid to reduce the
amount of N in the resulting effluent. However, the livestock threshold for mandatory
treatment varies according to the overall manure N loading within each ZES.
Many of the treatment technologies are costly to set up and operate, and so funding
has been made available to help with investment (Le Louarn, personal communication).
For example, in the Department of Côte d’Armor the following funding is available:
• The Agence de l’Eau (Water Agency) provides up to 30% of the investment
cost.
• The General Council (Departmental level) will provide up to 15% of investment
costs for farm holdings producing 20,000 kg/a of manure N or less, a maximum
of 110,000 euros per holding.
• The Regional Council of Brittany also provides up to 15% of investment costs
for farm holdings producing 20,000 kg/year of manure N or less, but up to a
maximum of 140,000 euros per holding
It is therefore possible for up to 60% of the treatment costs to be paid by regional
funding. However in reality, only those farm holdings that have met the IPCE and
PMPOA (Programme de Maîtrise des Pollutions d’origine Agricole) regulations since
1994 are eligible. In the majority of cases, the level of funding obtained per holding
ranges from 0% to 30% (Le Bris, personal communication).
Farms that are obliged to take action can obtain advice from the General Council,
the Chamber of Agriculture and the various companies that market treatment
technologies. Where treatment is an economically viable option, farms can group
together to form a GIE (Groupement d’Intérêt Economique). However, the majority
(88%) of treatment plants are operated by individual farms (Le Bris et al., 2005). On
those farms for whom the treatment option is not economic, the only alternatives
are to:
• transfer wastes to cantons where the manure N loading is less than 140 kg/ha;
• reduce the amount of N produced by introducing bi-phase or multi-phase
feeding;
• incinerate the waste (feasible for poultry) with transfer of ash products; and
• reduce the number of livestock.
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