Snowfluent has been successfully used in treating municipal wastewater since 1985, however this technology has never been applied to liquid hog manure. The process is very similar to that of making artifical snow, a production of a very fine aerasol when wastewater is propelled at a high velocity from the nozzle of a snow gun. The study was conducted in February 1997 at a 300 sow farrow-to-finish hog operation near Vegerville, Alberta. During snowmaking, bioaerosols were taken 6 m, 16 m, and 100 m within the snowgun tarjectory line. The liquid manure was sampled throughout the snowmaking period, and samples were also taken from newly made snow and the snowpack as it aged. Samples were also taken from the runoff as the snow melted and from standing water that remained after the snow was melted.
All samples collected were measured for: fecal coliform,pH, conducivity, Na, Ca, Cl, P, NH3 and NO3-N.

During the snowmaking process decreases between 87.8 – 99.3% of fecal coliforms were realized in the new snow, and significant decreases in pathogens were also observed in the snowpack. The snowpack and the melt water both reported decreases in excess of greater than 99.99%. Bioaerosol samples were taken at 100 m downwind from the snowgun did not differ from those upwind of the snowgun. Elevated levels were found throughout the tarjectory line of the snowgun, with the levels levels being reported at the 16 m range. As well, bacteria level in the trajectory line were founs to be in higher concentrations than normally reported in swine facilities. Bacteria concentrations at the 100 m point were not significantly higher than concentration levels upwind of the snowgun.

Samples of the new snow, aging snowpack and melt water indicated the concentrations of soluable constituents in the initial melt water were significantly higher than the initial concentrations in the snow. The snowpack served as a filtering mechanism, retaining the larger particles of organic matter within the snowpack and letting the more water soluable constituents drain out. This trial has shown Snowfluent to be a effective treatment for liquid hog manure, however the treatment is not effective enough for meltwater to be discharges into surface water or applied to frozen soil.