BAYFIELD, Colo.—Steamworks Brewing Co. has found a way to reduce the amount of waste it sends to the overburdened, outdated Bayfield sanitation system.
The brewery is taking yeast and effluent to a private landowner, who dumps the nitrogen-rich waste on pastureland. Leftover malt goes to a nearby rancher with longhorns.
“If there’s nothing going down the drain, then we’re not contributing to the problem,” said John Hiiva, Steamworks’ brewer.
The state imposed a sewer-tap moratorium in Bayfield last year to relieve the town’s overloaded sewage lagoons. Steamworks was among five businesses and institutions identified as “high load” contributors to the septic system who had to make reductions.
The brewery has spent an estimated $100,000 to install additional settling tanks, a secondary grease trap and other improvements.
The sewer-tap moratorium effectively halted new construction and affected business for builders, but it has since been lifted.
The town plans to construct a modern sanitation plant next year to replace its lagoons, which haven’t kept up with growth in this town of 1,792.
Steamworks intends to pay a share of the modern plant so Bayfield can build a facility with enough capacity for all its users. The size of the contribution has not yet been determined.
“We absolutely want to be a part of this community and part of the solution,” Steamworks co-founder Brian McEachron said.
Steamworks’ plant in Bayfield produces about two-thirds of Steamworks’ beer, co-founder and CEO Kris Oyler said. The company made more than 3,000 barrels of beer last year and is on track to brew about 4,000 this year, Oyler said.
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Information from: The Durango Herald,
