mr.x
Jan 25, 2008, 3:46 AM
With Cache Creek filling up by 2010, could this be our solution to ridding of our garbage? Another option is to dump it at Burns Bog....or possibly send it to Washington State. The least likely option is sending it to the interior.
Plan to burn garbage for power
Critics fear impact on quality of air
Kent Spencer, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
A technology that converts garbage to electricity is being suggested as an alternative to trucking Metro Vancouver's waste to landfills.
The region's waste committee wants to set up waste-to-energy power plants to dispose of 1.4 million tonnes annually.
The committee's plan, which abandons efforts to truck garbage to remote landfills, goes to the Metro board tomorrow for approval.
Metro Vancouver chairwoman Lois Jackson says a waste-to-energy project in Ottawa holds promise.
"There is not one smokestack," she said yesterday.
Reps for the pilot project say almost no harmful gases will be released, but Abbotsford Coun. Patricia Ross said such claims should be treated warily.
"In many cases waste-to-energy is just a new name for incinerators. People know what incinerators are and they're afraid of them," said Ross.
In Ottawa, Plasco Energy Group, in a one-year project, aims to consume 75 tonnes of waste a day. Four megawatts of electricity is to be produced annually, enough to power 3,600 homes.
The technology, developed in part by the federal government, has been in small-scale use for 20 years.
But Ottawa city officials want to find out if the $15-million plant can perform on a commercial scale.
"The technology is proven. The question remains whether it can do so effectively at a large scale," says an Ottawa staff report.
Gases are heated to almost the temperature at the sun's surface, vaporizing garbage and producing power.
The Ottawa staff report says no emissions are produced during the waste-conversion process. Air emissions are produced during power generation, which the report says are as clean as when using natural gas for generation.
Ottawa has supplied the land and about $600,000 in tipping fees, or $40 per load of garbage it handles.
Plasco, headed by former Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden, did not return calls.
Ross, meanwhile, has been told by industry consultants that they have "trouble believing" extremely low or zero emissions are possible.
"I haven't seen anything like that. We talk to consultants all the time," said Ross, chairwoman of the Fraser Valley Regional District's air quality committee.
The air that people breathe should be fiercely protected because the region's airshed is hemmed in by mountains, causing bad air to hang around, she said.
"We have to be very careful of small particles in the air. Disposing of a million tonnes should be taken seriously," she said.
"The easy answer is waste-to- energy.
"There has to be a better way."
Plan to burn garbage for power
Critics fear impact on quality of air
Kent Spencer, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
A technology that converts garbage to electricity is being suggested as an alternative to trucking Metro Vancouver's waste to landfills.
The region's waste committee wants to set up waste-to-energy power plants to dispose of 1.4 million tonnes annually.
The committee's plan, which abandons efforts to truck garbage to remote landfills, goes to the Metro board tomorrow for approval.
Metro Vancouver chairwoman Lois Jackson says a waste-to-energy project in Ottawa holds promise.
"There is not one smokestack," she said yesterday.
Reps for the pilot project say almost no harmful gases will be released, but Abbotsford Coun. Patricia Ross said such claims should be treated warily.
"In many cases waste-to-energy is just a new name for incinerators. People know what incinerators are and they're afraid of them," said Ross.
In Ottawa, Plasco Energy Group, in a one-year project, aims to consume 75 tonnes of waste a day. Four megawatts of electricity is to be produced annually, enough to power 3,600 homes.
The technology, developed in part by the federal government, has been in small-scale use for 20 years.
But Ottawa city officials want to find out if the $15-million plant can perform on a commercial scale.
"The technology is proven. The question remains whether it can do so effectively at a large scale," says an Ottawa staff report.
Gases are heated to almost the temperature at the sun's surface, vaporizing garbage and producing power.
The Ottawa staff report says no emissions are produced during the waste-conversion process. Air emissions are produced during power generation, which the report says are as clean as when using natural gas for generation.
Ottawa has supplied the land and about $600,000 in tipping fees, or $40 per load of garbage it handles.
Plasco, headed by former Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden, did not return calls.
Ross, meanwhile, has been told by industry consultants that they have "trouble believing" extremely low or zero emissions are possible.
"I haven't seen anything like that. We talk to consultants all the time," said Ross, chairwoman of the Fraser Valley Regional District's air quality committee.
The air that people breathe should be fiercely protected because the region's airshed is hemmed in by mountains, causing bad air to hang around, she said.
"We have to be very careful of small particles in the air. Disposing of a million tonnes should be taken seriously," she said.
"The easy answer is waste-to- energy.
"There has to be a better way."