Up to 3,000 tons of Linn County wood chips to be sent to help with avian flu cleanup

CEDAR RAPIDS — Up to 3,000 tons of wood chips from the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency's compost operation may be hauled to northwest Iowa to help in the decomposition of poultry killed to combat the avian flu virus.

It will take 143 semi-truck loads of chips, 21 tons per truck, if all 3,000 tons are needed, the agency said.

Dustin Vande Hoef, communications director for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said wood chips or other sources of carbon are being mixed with dead birds at some sites to raise the temperature during decomposition to kill the flu virus. The process is monitored to assure the temperature kills the virus so the compost can be applied to farm fields, he said.

The compost option is being used inside the barns where most of the just under 1 million dead turkeys had lived, he said.

It also is being used to handle some of the 23 million egg-producing chickens and 1.6 million young hens or pullets that have been killed. Some chickens are being buried and some incineration of dead chickens has begun, Vande Hoef said.

Karmin McShane, executive director of the Cedar Rapids/Linn Solid Waste Agency, said the agency was happy to help out in the avian flu cleanup and had ample available wood chips to sell.

The agency is receiving $30 a ton for wood chips, though she said the amount about covers the labor and equipment costs for the agency to chip wood debris that it takes in. By Monday afternoon, about 400 tons had been moved, the agency said.

Big Ox Energy, which is located in Denmark, Wis., is hauling the wood chips to poultry farms in Buena Vista County, said David Stecher, a consultant in Des Moines with Big Ox.

Late Monday afternoon, Stecher said Big Ox will meet the current demand for wood chips on Tuesday. But he added the 'presumption' is that the virus could spread to other farms and other counties in the state.

He said the composting option is a good one for farmers because it kills the virus so the nutrients from the compost of wood chips and dead birds can be used on farm fields.

McShane said she and other landfill directors in Iowa have visited via conference calls with state officials in the last several days to discuss the avian flu cleanup effort, including the option of putting dead birds in landfills.

'I'm not saying we wouldn't help, but that's not our goal,' McShane said of making the Cedar Rapids/Linn County landfill available for dead poultry.

State officials and the farm owners have focused on handling the problem where it is at in northwest Iowa, she said.

The state's Vande Hoef said none of the dead birds have gone to landfills at this point.