World's largest water bed

[Pat McCotter]

7-acre settling pond.

Making a cash cow out of manure isn't easy

(ClimateWire, 07/07/2009)
Debra Kahn, E&E reporter

ATWATER, Calif. -- The gurgling is loudest near the edges as Carl Morris jumps on a tarp covering a lagoon of decomposing manure.

"It's the world's largest waterbed," said Morris, chief operating officer of Joseph Gallo Dairy Farms in California's Central Valley.

The moonbounce-like, 60-millimeter-thick tarp covers the farm's 24-foot-deep pond. It's a holding tank for manure from 5,000 Holstein and Jersey cows, and the decomposing waste produces 400,000 cubic feet of methane gas per day. That, in turn, powers a generator and provides steam to run a cheese-making plant. It's also very stinky.

"There's nothing high-tech about it," said Morris, who estimates that the farm saves about $2,700 per day in electricity and steam power, plus 400,000 gallons of propane per year.
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[Russell Kanning]

cool

[Pat K]

I would think it rather ,hot.