What's the ecological impacts that must be considered for an EIS in a field where an anaerobic digester.....?

Question

I must write a hypothetical environmental impact statement with my classmates. I must include the ecological impacts that an anaerobic digestor will have on the surrounding area. It's in a remote field and I can't think of any ecological impacts that an AD would have on ecology that would be included in an environmental impact statement. Please help if you can, thanks guys.

Answer 1

I'm not a fan of just giving people answers, but I'll see what I can do by way of some nudging for what initially comes to my mind:

1)  I'm presuming this thing does need to be built, yes?  I'd think that might change the landscape both temporarily (construction) and permanently.

2)  Where's the final waste going?  The digester is just going to reduce the volume, not eliminate it entirely.

3)  Are you trying to catch the methane and actually do something with it, or just burn it off?

4)  Just because it's in a remote field, that doesn't mean this isn't going to effect the local ecology.  Maybe not people, but anything that comes out is sure to have some kind of an effect on local flora, fauna, bugs (read that as either insect or microbial)

I've never actually done one of these -- just been in school for far too long and discussed them a few times, but I thought I'd at least take a stab at it since nobody else seems to be saying anything yet.