Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. announced this week it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a large dairy in Lancaster County to retrofit its existing dairy operation with a Bion Nutrient Management System designed to reduce ammonia emissions and nutrients in the effluent.

The installation will initially treat the manure from the main 1,400-head dairy barn, with follow-on expansions designed to capture the remaining manure from the milk house, heifers, dry cows, calves, and potentially the manure from the co-located chicken facilities.

Bion chose to undertake this project due in large part to Pennsylvania's nutrient credit trading program, which was established to provide cost-effective reductions of the excess flow of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) into the Chesapeake Bay watershed (including its tributary the Susquehanna River).

Bion has worked extensively with the Department of Environmental Protection over the past year to establish a nutrient credit calculation/verification methodology that is appropriate to Bion's technology and recognizes its 'multi-media' (both water and atmospheric) approach to nutrient reductions.

Bion's comprehensive livestock waste treatment technology establishes a vital 'first of its kind' approach to the fight against excessive nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay: a verifiable reduction of ammonia air emissions that would otherwise lead to downwind deposition and a continued unregulated source of nutrients in the Bay.

Although nutrient credits have not been previously certified for ammonia reductions, based on discussions with DEP, Bion anticipates that more than 40 percent of the nutrient credits it generates at the Lancaster County installation will come from the reduction of ammonia emissions. The balance of credits will be generated from the reduction of soluble form nitrogen and phosphorus in the effluent.

Bion has already accomplished this level of ammonia reduction at the DeVries Dairy, a 1,300-head commercial dairy in Texas. The reductions were verified through independent testing and peer-reviewed by a team of scientists and engineers including representatives of several regulatory agencies. Bion will validate these reductions with the DEP during the Lancaster dairy's nutrient credit certification process.

Mark Smith, Bion's President, stated, "Bion's Lancaster County installation represents a key development in terms of establishing a structure for cost-effective multi-media nutrient management for CAFOs.

Bion's Nutrient Management System is the only process that provides a comprehensive solution that addresses both air emissions and nutrients in the effluent from livestock facilities. “We are pleased that the Department of Environmental Protection has recognized the contribution that Bion's technology can make in the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and other areas that suffer from excess nutrients. Programs like Pennsylvania's nutrient credit trading program provide substantial benefits to the public and the environment. As importantly, with the program, farmers can afford to install the technology."

For more information, visit the Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. website.

2/29/2008