‘Agriculture Project of the Year’ awardee breaks the mold
November 2, 2017
By Liza Mayer
The WateReuse Association, a trade organization advocating water reuse, has awarded an aquaponics farm backed by Pentair and Urban Organics the “2017 Agriculture Project of the Year” for its water- and energy-saving features.
Tilapia in one of four 3 The aquaponics farm, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is different from most aquaponics systems in that it is designed to be a decoupled system, meaning the fish production system can be operated separately from the plant production system.
This allows Urban Organics to raise fish species in cold water with low nutrient levels, alongside plant species in warm water with high nutrient levels by capturing, treating, concentrating and reusing the waste nutrients from the fish using Pentair’s advanced water filtration technology.
By reusing the water repeatedly, the system utilizes less than 10 percent of the water that would be required for conventional farming. Energy use, meanwhile, is minimized by up to 40 percent using energy-efficient pumps and LED lighting.
The 87,000-square-foot indoor aquaponics farm is expected to be at full capacity in early 2018. It is expected to produce 275,000 pounds of fish and 475,000 pounds of organic produce annually.
