Lime Recovery
A recycling business
Story and photos ©
Mark Bealer
Introduction: Licensing available for entire story.
Ò(The lime) really became a
problem...it was getting so deep we had to get it out...(as more lime pumped
in) the water level in our pond became level with our lowest gravity fed
basin,Ó says MiddletownÕs water treatment plant Manager, Gary Dursch. About
four other companies bid against Pohlman for the Middletown job. ÒSome of the
companies proposed to fashion a dredge over the 200 yard wide lake,Ó says
Dursch. ÒAnother thought of stretching cables over the lake with giant buckets
to scoop out lime, but I think they gave the idea up, he smiles.Ó
ÒItÕs a win win situation
really,Ódescribes Dursch. ÒHeÕs trying to keep costs down by selling to
farmers. We are happy because we have a way to get rid of it...(the lime)
doesnÕt end up in the landfill,Ó Dursch adds, to his account of PohlmanÕs
role as facilitator between once desperate plant managers and needy farmers.
A dairy farmer himself (previously),
Jim Pohlman of Sidney, Ohio, lost everything he possessed in the early 1980Õs
to a farm fire, except his wits, and his family. In fact, tens of thousands in
debt he had to declare bankruptcy. To survive he became a truck driver for a
nearby trucking company which had a contract hauling waste water from a nearby
plant.
Having seen the
workings from inside the water treatment plants showed Pohlman his future in a
new venture of his own design. Without any fanfare, Pohlman formed PohlKat Inc.
in 1985, after he simultaneously discovered the need and pictured the solution.
He realized cities were rejecting high bids turned in by removal contractors,
while their lime pits filled to capacity. He heard farmers, with calcium
deficient soil, complain of high prices at the quarries where they purchased
lime as an ingredient for their fields. ÒThe material coming out of these
(limes) lagoons has a high calcium content, says full time grain farmer Phillip
Neal. ÒThe spent lime is a perfect fit for what the soil needs.Ó