Imagine turning manure into water, and then drinking it! It's probably something most of us would cringe at, but one dairy farmer has been doing that for the last two and a half years.

The Prius driving dairy farmer John Vrieze has been working on a project that he says takes his cow manure, which is 90% water, extracts the nutrients, and turns the rest of the waste into clean, clear drinkable water.

Vrieze says, “Well it’s a great project, because we farmers think we're the greatest environmentalists of them all, we're always trying to figure out how to leave our lands for the next generation, and in better shape than when we got them from out ancestors.”

It's not just a matter of turning manure into clean drinking water, each part of the 4 step process yields a product that can be used on the farm.

He says he uses the waste's nitrogen and methane for energy, fertilizer, bedding for his cows, and the rest he says he turns into water.

Vrieze has been waiting for the last 30 months for the Department of Natural Resources to grant him a permit to use the recycled water on his fields. Without that permit, the water has to go into a lagoon with the other waste.

He says, “Everybody I talk to says this is really great technology the dairy industry needs to change the way they handle liquid manure and this is the biggest change I’ve ever seen in my life, and it'll really impact the industry.”

Nuway created the system on Vrieze's farm and says they are using technology other industries use to generate clean water that meets or exceeds the same standards used in wastewater treatment plants- which he says is basically the same as the water coming out of your tap at home.

He says “the water tastes just like distilled water that you would buy at a grocery store,” minus the minerals.

Vrieze says that in about 4 hours they can turn 50,000 gallons of manure into water.
He also said the permit process is still in the DNR’s hands.

We could not reach the DNR for comment on Friday.