Sludge Watch ==> Illinois - $50 M sludge plant - will make little glass granules

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/city/5_1_WA29_NSSD_S10829.htm

$50M price tag for new sludge recycling plant

By Ed Collins SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-SUN

GURNEE — North Shore Sanitary District officials have released figures 
showing their new Zion sludge recycling plant which will soon begin 
operation, will cost taxpayers nearly $50 million when all bills are in.

The cost to date over the seven-year project is $46,595,800.

The figures were released in response to a request at the board's monthly 
meeting Aug. 9 by Harold Rafson, a district resident from Highland Park and 
an environmental critic of the plant.

NSSD Board President Steve Drew of Waukegan said while the sludge drying and 
melting plant will begin operation next month, final figures for the project 
won't be available until after April 30 of next year, the end of the 
district's current fiscal year.

"The district has nothing to hide," Drew said. "While we have encountered 
some unusual and unexpected cost variations from our original plan in 
building this unique project, we have pretty much remained on budget," Drew 
said.

NSSD General Manager Brian Dorn anticipates spending an additional 
$3,353,000 between now and next April. That would bring total expenses to 
$49,595,800.

Dorn said expenses have been tracked in five major categories as follows:

Engineering costs (in round figures): $2.9 million for architectural and 
engineering design costs for the plant and its infrastructure.

• Procurement costs: $12.6 million, mostly for purchasing the German-made 
sludge melter and drying equipment, then shipping and storing it at the 
district's Waukegan sanitary treatment plant until it was moved again to the 
Zion site.

• General plant construction costs: About $30 million currently and expected 
to be $32 million when completed.

nUtility costs: $353,000 to ComEd and People's Gas. It was basically for 
installation and preliminary testing of equipment.

• Miscellaneous costs: $1.6 million, the vast majority were for legal costs 
when the District squared off in court against the city of Waukegan, which 
protested NSSD's attempt to build the plant in that city.

Both Drew and Dorn have high hopes for the future of the Zion plant.

In the past, NSSD buried its waste sludge from its three treatment plants in 
a 400-acre landfill in Newport County, near Zion. Because of the shortage of 
fly ash, which was mixed with the sludge before being buried, and limited 
landfill space, sanitary district officials realized they would soon require 
a new method of disposal.

Europeans have frowned on landfills for years because of the various 
problems they present, so the Germans developed a technology of drying and 
melting their wet sludge and converting it into tiny glass granules which 
could be commercially sold for roadbed construction.

While there are several plants in Europe and a couple in Asia using this 
technology, NSSD will be the first to use it in the United States.

The process has its critics. Some environmentalists believe the melting 
process will further contribute to local air pollution and add undesirable 
pollutants such as mercury into nearby Lake Michigan.

However, the plant has received full operational clearance from both state 
and federal environmental protection agencies.


08/29/06