Landfill electricity plant explained to lawmakers

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — After four years of talk about installing a power generation plant at the Sullivan County landfill, lawmakers seem nearly ready to make a commitment to a project. At a meeting of the Public Works Committee on December 7, Steven Gabrielle, a representative of the PPL Energy Services, gave a presentation to lawmakers at the government center about the company’s plan to turn gas from the landfill into energy.

Gabrielle said gas would be collected from the landfill, processed in a compressor and burned in two Caterpillar diesel engines, which would create electricity. The electricity would then be sold into the New York State electricity grid. As the landfill exists now, the revenue from the sale of the electricity would generate about one million dollars yearly with about $80,000 going to the county. If the landfill were expanded, as is desired by a majority of the legislators, the payments to the county would increase to about $230,000 per year on revenues approaching four million dollars per year.

Gabrielle said that without the expansion, the gas-generated electricity operation would last from eight to 12 years; with the expansion, the operation could last 20 years or more. He said the facility would generate enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes.

Legislator Rodney Gaebel expressed concern that the company might take action that would violate the conditions of the permit under which the county operates the landfill. Gabrielle responded that his company operates several such systems at various landfills around the country and is sensitive to the requirements of permits.

Legislator Leni Binder sought assurances that the site would not “look like southern New Jersey,” in terms of smokestacks and visibility from the highway. Gabrielle said there were stacks through which the heated air rose, but these would be lower than the existing flares that are currently used to burn off the gases produced by the landfill.

Janet Newburg, a member of the group Special Protection for the Environment of the County of Sullivan (SPECS) said she was concerned with the gas that escapes from the process having not been burned.

Gabrielle said that landfills typically produce gas that is 40 to 60 percent methane, and the remainder is made up of other gasses. However, 99.7 percent of all gasses are destroyed in the process of burning them in the diesel engines. He added that the gasses are currently being burned off in flares as required by law. Peter Kuniholm, a vice president with SCS Engineers, which provides various landfill services to the county, said that burning the gas in the diesel engines would “categorically result in a better condition in the area” compared to the gases being burned in the flares.

The flares, however, would still be used as a back-up method of destroying gas in the event that more gas was produced by the landfill than could be handled by the two diesel engines.

Newburg said SPECS still has reservations about the plan, because it might be seen as another reason that the landfill should be expanded, which the group strongly opposes.

Renewable energy advocate Dick Riseling said that while the process was a reasonable way to deal with the gas already being generated at the landfill, he urged lawmakers not to jump into the plan too quickly. He said he would favor the county forming its own power authority, and perhaps creating its own gas-to-electricity facility. Riseling, who has been lobbying local and county officials to get into the solar and wind energy businesses, said there is no reason the county should give away the bulk of the profits to a private company.

Lawmakers decided to put off a vote on the plan until additional information could be gathered.