Sludge Watch ==> Near Chigaco - Minergy sludge processing plant opens August

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/city/5_1_WA14_NSSDSLUDGE_S10714.htm

NSSD Zion sludge plant set for August opening

By Ed Collins
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SUN

GURNEE — Trustees of the North Shore Sanitary District are looking forward 
with relief to the opening of their controversial $30 million sludge 
recycling facility in Zion next month in spite of lingering environmental 
criticisms, construction delays and change orders now running more than $2 
million.

General Manager Brian Dorn told trustees Wednesday at their monthly meeting 
that the general contractor finished his work June 30. Only a few electrical 
and mechanical subcontractors are still on site installing acoustical 
panels, completing installation of the heating and air-conditioning system, 
and overseeing training and system startups for the technicians who will 
operate the equipment.

The plant's operating core is its cyclone furnace melter and dryer 
equipment. Testing of the dryer and the sludge pumping system currently is 
under way, Dorn said. Several loads of dewatered sludge were recently 
brought to the site for the tests.
Testing of the furnace melter and its oxygen firing system is scheduled to 
begin next week.

"We should be ready to begin actual operations in late August or possibly 
early September," Dorn said.

The plant is the only one of its kind in the nation. There are several 
operating in Europe, where landfills are publicly frowned upon.

The NSSD project has been several years in the making and has been plagued 
with problems.

Environmentalists have referred to the plant as an "incinerator," 
complaining that it will generate additional air pollution and possibly high 
mercury levels in Lake Michigan drinking water. However, governmental 
regulators from both state and federal environmental protection agencies 
have given the plant full clearance to operate.

The project bogged down when Waukegan sued the sanitary district in a 
three-year zoning dispute over the district's intention to locate the plant 
on the Waukegan lakefront site of NSSD's sanitary treatment plant.

Meanwhile, the $10 million German-made cyclone furnace melter and dryer 
equipment, sat idle in crates at the Waukegan plant while the city and NSSD 
argued zoning jurisdiction against property rights.

Finally, in May 2003, the city of Zion presented NSSD an alternate choice. 
Seeking to replenish lost tax revenue from ComEd's closing of its nuclear 
power plant, Zion invited the sanitary district to build the 
26,000-square-foot recycling plant at NSSD's longtime sludge landfill.

In return, the district gave Zion 200 of its 400 acres to form Trumpet 
Technology Park, an industrial and office park. The sludge recycling plant 
is Trumpet's anchor facility.


Recycling sludge

The "minergy" device will process sewage sludge from the NSSD's three 
sanitary treatment plants and convert it into a glasslike aggregate that can 
then be used as road-building material. Previously, the district buried that 
sludge in landfills.