This is a very good question. Part of the answer lies in the history of opposition to waste-to energy here in Tompkins County. It is based on a rational fear that its use would impede recycling and reuse. Why? Because once it is built, a WTE plant has a relentless need for fuel and that need competes for product with the recycling market, creating a disincentive to recycle. While rational, this aversion to WTE has resulted in a deeply rooted opposition to any consideration of WTE options, however reasonable they might otherwise appear. Perhaps we are at a point where we can reconsider this position, particularly in light of the experience in Europe, where WTE has been successfully integrated into a coherent waste management system that maximizes reuse and recycling.
We should not minimize the associated impacts of a WTE plant, though, especially one as big as this one would be if fully converted to wastes for fuel. It would probably draw wastes from a rather large area, and as much as we might prefer it, much of it is not likely to arrive by rail (unless shipped from some large city south of us (since south is our only rail connection). I don't see the waste haulers objecting, though, since this location would be closer for them than the landfills in Seneca and Cortland counties that they currently haul to -- especially if the tipping fee were comparable or less. Joel Gagnon 10:43 PM 7/22/13 -0700, you wrote: >Why is it that Waste-to-Energy (WTE) has not seriously been considered as >a conversion strategy for the Cayuga Power Plant (aka Milliken Station) in >Lansing? In 2012 a group of Cornell engineering students under the >direction of Francis Vanek conducted a detailed study of WTE as a possible >energy source for the Lansing/Cayuga plant, and found that it "appeared to >be cost competitive, could use existing infrastructure with minor capital >investments for facility changes at Milliken Station, and has the >additional environmental benefit of reducing landfilling of municipal garbage." > >In late May (May 31?) Francis Vanek published a letter in the Ithaca >Journal that highlighted this idea, but somehow it hasn't excited the >interest of the local sustainability community or of key local decision >makers such as members of the Tompkins County Legislature. Why not? > >The plant's owners want to convert it from a coal plant to natural gas, >while most of us who are concerned about fracking want the plant >mothballed and its energy replaced by energy generated by renewable >sources from elsewhere. Lansing residents (many of whom oppose gas >drilling by fracking) and the Lansing School District are understandably >worried about what the loss of the existing plant would do to the >district's tax base. These two polarized positions are apparently the >only ones that will be seriously considered at the upcoming Public Service >Commission (PSC) forum next week (July 29). > >So why not convert the plant to operate on WTE fuel? Eighty-nine WTE >plants currently operate in the US, including 10 in NY State. My wife, >Dorothy Pomponio, recently corresponded with Richard Lewis, a >representative for Recovered Energy, Inc., which facilitates retrofitting >of existing coal-fired power plants to operate using waste as >fuel. Plasma gasification is the method used to convert the waste to >energy; it does not incinerate the waste, but heats it to such high >temperatures that organic waste becomes a gas (fuel), and inorganic waste >is vitrified. Mr. Lewis wrote to Dorothy that toxic emissions from the >plant would be reduced by 99% (from current); consumption of water at the >plant could be reduced by at least 50% (from current consumption levels); >plant efficiency would increase dramatically; it would have a new 40-year >life; and using municipal waste as fuel would reduce the amount of waste >going into landfills. > >For details, visit the website at ><http://recoveredenergy.com/>http://recoveredenergy.com/ > >This sounds like a win-win-win to me. So why isn't WTE conversion part of >the current debate over what to do with the Cayuga Power Plant in Lansing? > >Joel Rabinowitz >Executive Director >Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve > >607-279-7393 For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ If you have questions about this list please contact the list manager, Tom Shelley, at [email protected].
