The core challenge involved managing the massive volume of liquid hog waste often stored in anaerobic lagoons (ponds). Runoff and leaks from these lagoons contribute to nutrient pollution (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) in local watersheds, leading to significant environmental, regulatory, and public health problems.
The Innovation: Phosphate Recycling
An innovative Australian-designed engineering solution was introduced to the process. This technology was designed to:
- Extract Phosphate: Chemically and physically separate the highly concentrated phosphate and other valuable nutrients from the liquid waste stream.
- Create Marketable Fertilizer: Convert the extracted nutrients into a stable, dry, slow-release, marketable phosphate fertilizer product.
- Clean Effluent: Produce a significantly cleaner water effluent that dramatically reduces nutrient load before any discharge or land application.
This dual solution solved two problems simultaneously: reducing environmental pollution and creating a new revenue stream from waste.
The GIS Professional's Role (Blazing Maps)
The Geospatial Consultant (Blazing Maps) was brought in to provide crucial site suitability analysis, engineering support, and regulatory compliance modeling.
Crucially, the consultant brought 15 years of prior experience as a GIS Analyst in the Central Florida phosphate mining industry. This role involved pre- and post-mining modeling, mapping, and regulatory permitting, providing deep operational and environmental knowledge of phosphate extraction, handling, and environmental remediation—a critical advantage for this modern green effort.
The work included:
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Site Suitability & Engineering Prep: Identifying suitable old farm parcels for conversion into centralized processing facilities using high-resolution imagery and LiDAR-derived terrain data. This involved:
- Terrain Analysis & Grading: Detailed LiDAR-based cut and fill modeling to determine grading feasibility, minimize earthwork costs, and optimize the final site pad elevation.
- Facility Design & Layout: Using the terrain model to design and site specific facility features, access roads, and internal logistics paths for construction efficiency and operational flow.
- Soil Analysis: Checking specific soil characteristics for structural and drainage capability requirements.
- Hydrologic Modeling: Conducting pre-development and post-development modeling of water (drainage accumulation and drainage areas) to ensure compliance and manage site runoff effectively.
- Critical Organizational Problem Solved: Consistently delivering verifiable, high-impact solutions for high-stakes location intelligence challenges using advanced geospatial intelligence.
- Logistics Optimization & Network Planning: Modeling the optimal placement for centralized processing facilities by calculating the minimum travel distance and cost for transporting waste from numerous regional hog farms to the facility.
- Network Expansion Modeling: Utilizing network analysis to identify and model additional satellite collection sites to maximize pickup efficiency and ensure the entire regional waste volume could be delivered to multiple centralized facilities as part of an overall expansion plan.
Impact and Recognition
This project enabled the efficient deployment and scaling of the recycling technology across the region. The clever engineering solution led to major recognition for the engineer, including an award and a meeting with President Obama, highlighting the innovative, green approach to solving a persistent agricultural and environmental crisis.
The success demonstrated the essential role of GIS in translating a technical engineering solution into a practical, scalable, and compliant regional deployment strategy.