I found this article and think it speaks to this thread. Will, perhaps yopu could give this a shot ;-))
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...590/1199/PRINT
OAKLAND COUNTY
Manure keeps recycler trotting
Horse owners send waste to power plant
Oakland County horse owners are taking advantage of a one-of-kind program that offers to cart away manure and convert it into electricity.
Mid-Michigan Recycling is picking up the waste free for farms within 35 miles of the Genesee Power Station or for a low cost for farms within 100 miles.
About 65 horse farmers, mostly in Milford, White Lake Township, Highland, Lake Orion and Oxford, have signed up. So far, Mid-Michigan has gathered more than 11,000 tons of waste and straw bedding.
Oakland has 6,900 horses -- more than any other county in the state, according to Michigan State University, which is promoting the program to farmers. The plant's permit allows it to burn up to 110,000 tons of material from horse farms per year, according to MSU.
"We love the service," said Sean Kelly, owner of Topline Dressage, a Clarkston farm that boards and trains 22 horses. Kelly used to spend $250 every three weeks for a company to haul his horses' bedding and manure to a landfill or composting center.
At the power station, the waste is mixed with dead ash trees and other wood waste to fire generators that make electricity. One 36-ton truckload of horse bedding and manure generates enough electricity to power 32 homes for a month, according to MSU.
The program, which began on a pilot basis about eight months ago, is the only one in the state, according to officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which regulates the plant.
Mid-Michigan's Donna Snyder, who arranges pickup of the horse bedding and manure, said the program helps offset the rising costs of hay and horse feed.
"The equine industry has really been hammered lately," she said. "This helps the farmers, it helps us, and it's good for the environment. It works."
Katie Callahan, barn manager Grosse Pointe Hunt Club in Grosse Pointe Woods, pays Mid-Michigan Recycling $800 a month to transport the manure and bedding left behind by the club's 40 horses. Callahan used to pay $2,000 a month to have the mess hauled to a landfill.
"It's a huge savings," she said. "And it's being used for something good."
The Genesee Power Station hasn't always been the subject of such positive commentary.
When the plant was built in the 1990s, the primarily poor, African Americans in the surrounding community sued to block its opening, concerned that the plant would release too much lead into the air when it burned wood from demolished homes covered with lead-based paint.
Local leaders contended the plant was located in their neighborhood partly because of racist attitudes that made it easier to pollute in areas populated by poor people or people of color.
The case eventually was settled with an agreement requiring a reduction in the amount of lead that the plant could release.
State air regulator Mike Masterson said the amount of pollution released into the air by burning the farm waste is the same as the amount released by the plant before it started burning the manure mixture.