Federal legislation that would allocate $4.3 million to ongoing agricultural research at Western Kentucky University is making its way through Congress.

The money, part of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill, is part of a $13 million appropriation inserted by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to fund various research projects at WKU and the University of Kentucky.

The bill, which proposes $20.4 billion of investments in agriculture, rural development, the Food and Drug Administration and related concerns, was approved last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee and now moves on for consideration by the full Senate.

Funding proposed for WKU includes $1.39 million toward the construction of university’s Agriculture Research Service lab, the fourth installment of federal money for the facility.

The Senate has to date allocated $6.7 million for construction of this facility.

Currently, a team of six U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers work with the university’s agriculture department out of trailers at the WKU farm.

Blaine Ferrell, dean of the Ogden College of Science and Engineering, said a permanent on-campus ARS lab would replace the North Wing of the Thompson Complex, although a date for its completion has not been solidified.

Other appropriations include $2.84 million to fund research by ARS scientists and WKU for agriculture waste management and $89,000 to continue research on the Green River Quality and Biological Diversity project.

The waste management research, for which $12.3 million has previously been appropriated, involves efforts at converting animal waste into energy, with researchers consulting with poultry farmers about converting chicken droppings into energy and with cattle and hog farmers to reduce the smell and prevent contamination produced by waste lagoons.

“Last fall, we used leaf litter collected by the city and waste from chickens to heat a greenhouse from the micro-organisms,” Ferrell said.

The Green River project is an ongoing effort to measure the effectiveness of conservation efforts in the Upper Green River Watershed, about two miles north of Mammoth Cave National Park.

To date, McConnell has secured $1.6 million for this project, which looks at how farm runoff impacts the watershed.

“The project researches the effect on the water quality and what happens to the biodiversity of the river because of farmers who are near the Green River,” Ferrell said.