More answers needed from renewable natural gas facility
By Lethbridge Herald on February 20, 2026.
Editor,
After reading the Lethbridge Herald article on the joint venture between Taurus Canada Renewable Natural Gas Corporation and KCL Cattle Companies, I have a few questions that I
think need to be answered:
1 – What was being done with the 130,000 tonnes of manure generated by cows on the four feed lots involved? Was it not being spread on the land as fertilizer, putting nutrients and carbon back into the soil to reduce the need for commercial fertilizers to grow the silage used to feed the cattle.
2 – How many more trucks will be traveling the gravel roads delivering manure to a facility that uses a lot of water to make a slurry to cause the anaerobic action to create 72,000 tonnes of
Green House Gas and 15,000 tonnes of CO2 each year?
3 – Of course, this system will create 360,000 gigajoules of recoverable natural gas each year that will be put into a pipe line already filled with our overabundance of fossil fuel natural gas.
On top of this the 15,000 tonnes of CO2 created will then be stored underground by way of apipeline to be drilled somewhere near the facility.
It seems like a 70.5 million dollar project ( Alberta Government Grant of $10 million and a Federal Government Grant of $ 3. 5 million) to solve a problem, animal manure, that never was a
problem, just a natural end product that really is a needed resource to restore the health of the land.
Grant Harrington,
Lethbridge
13-12
These are important questions to be answered regarding this joint venture.
I would, however, add additional considerations vis a vis intensive feedlot operations.
While there is nutrient value obtained from animal manure being used as fertilizer, there is also the question of significant pollution from excess phosphorus and potassium accumulating in the soil with the potential for leaching out into water sources to create oxygen depletion, weed growth and algae blooms in water sources.
Managing the environmental footprint of intensive feedlot operations is a complex issue. However, the points raised by Mr. Harrington are valid.
https://www.beefresearch.ca/topics/environmental-footprint-of-beef-production/
these are intelligent concerns. gosh, i sure hope this will amount to more than yet another pocket lining program.