CASE STUDY / AGRICULTURE

Dairy Odor Cut Enough to Win the Air Permit for Twice the Herd

This case shows how prevention based dosing cleared flush tank odor at a Texas dairy enough to win a larger state air quality permit. A 2,000-head dairy in north central Texas washed cattle waste from four flush tank rows through a ditch into its lagoon, and the odor at each dump was so strong that personnel had to back away a large distance. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) would not raise the dairy's air quality permit while that odor continued, which capped the operation at 2,000 head. We poured a single five gallon pail of DRP Accelerator into the flush tank, and the very next dump was breathable near the dump area. We then set a 275 gallon tote to inject continuously at the head of the ditch, and after about six weeks the operator called the agency back out. The inspector granted the larger permit after that one visit, the ditch reopened from about 18 inches wide to more than three feet, and the lagoon began to clean up.

The odor was blocking the permit. Dosing at the ditch cleared both.

A Texas dairy milking 2,000 head ran flush tank rows that washed cattle waste through a ditch into a lagoon.
The dairy's flush tank odor was strong enough that the state environmental agency would not raise its air quality permit above 2,000 head.
A single five gallon application of DRP Accelerator, poured into the flush tank, made the very next dump breathable near the dump area.
A 275 gallon tote of DRP Accelerator, injected continuously at the head of the ditch, ran for about six weeks before a second tote replaced it.
The plugged drainage ditch, narrowed to about 18 inches wide by standing organic solids, opened back up to more than three feet wide.
One inspection visit by the state environmental agency was enough to grant the larger air quality permit.
Fly populations at the dairy were visibly reduced after continuous dosing began.

Published September 24, 2026

The system

This case comes from a 2,000-head dairy in north central Texas. Cattle stood in feed rows, two rows built back to back with a concrete pad between them that let waste wash into the collection system, four rows in all. Water pumped from the lagoon filled a large holding tank, and when a float in the tank reached the top it opened a dump valve, releasing several thousand gallons down one of the concrete pads. The rows alternated which pad received the flush, carrying manure solids into a ditch that ran to the lagoon, whose water supplied the next tank fill, so the loop repeated on its own schedule.

The problem

The dairy’s owner wanted to grow the herd from 2,000 head to 4,000. Two things stood in the way. The odor released at each tank dump was strong enough that a person could not stand near it, personnel had to back away a large distance to breathe, the same flush tank and lagoon odor we see across dairy operations, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) would not approve a larger air quality permit while it continued. Without the permit the dairy could not add cattle. The ditch carrying flush water to the lagoon had also plugged: dug at roughly 6 feet across and 6 feet deep, it had caked with organic solids until only an 18-inch-wide channel remained open, a foot or two deep, and flush water regularly overflowed it, leaving still more deposits.

What we did

We ran the treatment in two steps. In step one, personnel stood near the cattle rows to watch a dump happen: the odor forced everyone back, as it always had. After that dump finished, we carried a five gallon pail of DRP Accelerator to the holding tank and poured it in through the hatch. The tank refilled as usual, mixing the accelerator into the lagoon water on its way. When the float tripped the next dump, personnel did not have to retreat. The air near the dump area was breathable.

In step two, we set a 275 gallon tote of DRP Accelerator at the head of the ditch and injected it continuously into the flush water as it entered the channel. Treated water carried the accelerator down the ditch into the lagoon, and because the lagoon supplied the next tank fill, the same water cycled back through the system on each flush. DRP Accelerator is an inorganic compound that carries usable oxygen to the bacteria already living in the wastewater. We add no bacteria, no enzymes and no chemical additives. With oxygen available, those bacteria stop stripping it from sulfate, so hydrogen sulfide is not formed, and aerobic bacteria go to work on the fats, oils, grease and organic solids caking the ditch, the same upstream prevention approach we run on other sites. The first tote ran about six weeks before a second tote replaced it and dosing continued.

How it was measured

This case history is our own field record from the treatment, not a third party laboratory study. Odor was judged the way the dairy experienced it: whether personnel could stand near the tank dump without retreating. The ditch’s width was measured directly, before treatment and after the channel reopened. The permit outcome is a matter of record with the state agency: the operator requested a follow-up inspection once the first tote had run its course, and a single visit from that inspector produced the approval. The document gives no exact calendar dates, only that the first tote’s roughly six week run preceded the inspection, and it records no flow rate for the tank, no total water use, and no numeric odor reading such as a threshold odor number.

Results

Measure	Before treatment	After treatment
Odor at the tank dump	Personnel had to back away a large distance	Breathable near the dump area
Ditch open channel	About 18 inches wide, 1 to 2 feet deep	More than 3 feet wide, several feet deep
Air quality permit	Capped the herd at 2,000 head	Increased, permitting the herd to double toward 4,000
Flies	Elevated population	Visibly reduced

Step	Dose	Duration
Step one	One 5 gallon pail into the flush tank	Single application, next dump
Step two, first tote	275 gallon tote, continuous injection at the head of the ditch	About six weeks
Step two, second tote	A second 275 gallon tote, continuous injection	Running at the time of the report

The larger permit was approved after that single inspection, and the report describes the lagoon as starting to clean up on its own, which it expects will avoid a future dredge. The document does not confirm the herd had reached 4,000 head by the time it was written, only that the permit now allows it.

Limitations

This is one dairy’s field record, not an independent or third party study. The odor result is the account of the personnel who applied the treatment, not a blind panel or a threshold odor number, so it should be read as a description, not a measurement. The ditch dimensions are approximate figures in the document, and neither the tank’s flush volume nor total water use is recorded. The timeline is relative, about six weeks per tote, with no calendar dates. There is no untreated control run alongside this one to isolate the accelerator’s effect from anything else that may have changed at the site. For a future customer, a result like this is a goal we measure, not a promise.

Proof assets

The source document, “Case History: Odor Control at a Dairy to Allow Expanding the TCEQ Air Quality Permit.”
Waste Water Innovations is confirming the dairy’s written permission before naming it on this page.

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