Herefordshire biodigester plans 'could enhance River Wye quality'

Applicants claim processing poultry manure in biodigesters could improve water quality in the Rivers Wye and Lugg

Plans for an anaerobic digestion plant, which applicants claim could provide gas for 6,000 homes while improving water quality, have been submitted.

The plans submitted by STL Energy say the plant in Herefordshire would take in about 116,000 tonnes of poultry manure and apple pulp a year.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the firm is working with local poultry supplier Avara.

The proposed site is at Whitwick Manor Farm near Ledbury.

The 19-hectare plant could strip 95% of phosphate from 100,000 tonnes of chicken muck a year, said applicants

Poultry waste contains phosphorous which campaigners claim contributes to excess algae growth in the River Wye.

The application claims processing it in the digester would "reduce the risks at many other sites, so that an overall enhancement of water quality through the catchments of the Lugg and Wye is likely".

STL Energy owns four other farms in Herefordshire and operates an anaerobic digestion and combined heat and power plant at Court Farm in Hampton Bishop.

The Whitwick Manor Farm site would additionally process 25,000 tonnes of liquid by-products from the food and drinks industry and 35,000 tonnes of digestate from the Hampton Bishop plant at Court Farm, according to the bid.

The plant could process 116,000 tonnes of chicken muck and apple pulp a year

The use of liquid feedstocks would avoid the need to use mains water given the "high volumes of water needed," the application said.

When this leaves the plant, a system of "nutrient stripping" and use of a lagoon and reed beds "will ensure that the water entering the catchment of the River Lugg, and thus that of the River Wye is sustainable," the scheme claims.

The applicant is also seeking permission for feedstock storage clamps, tanks, lagoons and a wetland filtration system.

Comments on the application can be made until 22 October with a decision on the scheme due to be made in December.