
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995                   TAG: 9506060094
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEADOWVIEW                                LENGTH: Medium

TECHNOLOGY IS REDUCING FARM POLLUTION|

Roy Fogelsong was skeptical about using a newfangled solar-powered system to water his dairy cows, even if the federal government was covering most of the cost to help reduce stream pollution.

So K.D. Cook, a Department of Agriculture conservation specialist, drove Fogelsong to another farm in Southwest Virginia for a demonstration.

``I figured the best thing I could do was show him it works,'' Cook said Thursday. ``The thing was pumping away and vibrating under our feet. It cut off for a minute when a cloud covered the sun. Then it started right back up. I was trying to get him to buy one. He was so impressed, he bought two.''

Fogelsong's cows are no longer drinking from the headwaters of Greenway Creek and contaminating the stream with manure and urine.

The pilot project is funded by a $180,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to assist farmers in Southwest Virginia's Holston River watershed where there have been pollution problems. So far, seven farmers are involved.

A similar project, funded by an EPA grant of $48,000, is under way along the East Fork of the Little River in Floyd County.

The grant for the Holston River project pays 75 percent of the equipment and installation costs for solar pumps; landowners who volunteer for the project foot the bill for the remaining expense, which is minimal.

About $1,500 buys a solar-powered pump and related gear, so a farmer's share would be about $375 for each piece of equipment. The units are self-contained and last up to 35 years with little maintenance.

So it cost Fogelsong about as much as buying a dairy cow.

Twin solar panels less than a mile apart provide the electrical power for a pair of 24-volt water pumps buried beneath the red clay in an underground spring that feeds the creek.

Before the pumps were installed, the herd roamed contentedly across the spring. The waste got into the creek - contaminating the water with bacteria that eventually flowed into Holston Lake, the primary water supply for Abingdon and Bristol.

``It's working fine,'' Fogelsong said, leaning against a pickup truck on the hot afternoon. ``You can't even hear it.''

by CNB