LOGAN -- Utah environmental regulators have set a seven-year deadline for Logan officials to cut the amount of phosphorus in sewage lagoons west of the city.
Water from the lagoons discharges into Cutler Reservoir.
Phosphorous fuels algae blooms that produce oxygen during the day, but use oxygen at night and essentially suffocate fish and other animals, said Utah Department of Environmental Quality Assistant Director John Whitehead.
DEQ wants Logan to cut the amount of phosphorus in its sewage lagoons by half.
To fix its phosphorous problem, Logan is working with Utah State University researchers to develop a $40 million experimental project that would convert the algae into biofuels to power vehicles.
Algae would be allowed to grow in the lagoons and consume phosphorous before being harvested and run through "digesters" that would yield biofuel, said Issa Hamud, Logan's environmental department director.
The city is working with U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett's office to secure funding for the project through a Department of Energy stimulus grant.
Logan Mayor Randy Watts said a city lobbyist also is talking with oil companies interested in adding "renewables on their portofolios."
Those companies could partner with the city to build a biofuel facility, Watts said.
Utah State would have a big stake in the project. The school's Energy Dynamics Laboratory has already developed a small-scale algae harvesting facility with hopes of making money developing designs and processes that thousands of lagoon facilities around the world could employ.
There are about 16,000 wastewater lagoons in America.
"We're really trying to respond strategically, addressing a need the nation has while at the same time capitalizing on opportunity," Forrest Fackrell, vice president for business operations of the Utah State University Research Foundation, said last year when EDL announced the venture with Logan city.
The project helps Logan avoid building a traditional mechanical treatment plant that could cost as much as $200 million -- a bill the city would share with Smithfield, Hyde Park, North Logan, River Heights, Providence and Nibley.
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