Sludge Watch ==> More Air studies at proposed Sludge Power Plant - Canada

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin

There is a proposal to use sewage sludge as a fuel to generate energy in 
Hamilton Ontario.
The proposal has seen submitted to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment 
for consideration.
Residents near the plant want to see more airshed testing for the proposal.

There has been a sudden upwelling of interest in alternative waste disposal 
in Southern Ontario, because much of Ontario's trash  - and sludge - is 
currently being trucked 4 or 5 hours away into Michigan land New York 
landfills.  American politicians are getting restless, and there are 
increasing indications that the border may close to Ontario trash...and 
sludge.  (Maybe we should rethink the US hazmat waste dropped off at Ontario 
landfills)

American unease has thrown Ontario into a waste crisis...and there is 
suddenly much more talk of thermal solutions to waste.  The Ontario 
Environmental Commissioner, Gord Miller, is right when he points out that 
the Ministry of the Environment  (MOE) is taking no leadership role in 
exploring the various waste disposal possibilities and isn't providing 
leadership in discussions on incineration, gassification, energy from 
biomass, pyrolysis, or any of the newer technologies to manage waste.

And then we need to ask ... what kinds of things make suitable fuels?  Land 
applied sludges are currently emitting 100% of the dioxins, 100% of the 
mercury, 100% of pathogens, 100% of metals, 100% of Volatile Organic 
Compounds, 100% of greenhouse gases into the environment.   Using sludge for 
fuel will stop virtually all of those emissions into the ambient 
environment.  If these kinds of plants have a smaller environmental 
footprint they need to be explored.

The land application of sewage sludge is conveying pathogens...diseases from 
hospitals, mortuaries, landfills, abattoirs .... diseases that have been 
hardened into antibiotic resistant and antimicrobial resistant time bombs by 
the sludge digestion process.  This microbial war-of-all-against-all is 
putting those armed micro-organisms - including those from novel virulent 
pathogens like SARS - onto our food producing lands.  Prion wastes are 
allowed to accumulate on sludge spread fields because only high temperatures 
will disinfect these pathogens.

If land application is our default setting for sludge disposal then heaven 
help us when a virulent fecally-carried outbreak occurs. Do Canadians think 
Americans will sit back and let us continue to drive contagious sludges into 
the USA in the midst of an outbreak?  And if its too much of a health risk 
for the USA landfills do you think farmers will take it on their crops next 
to their homes and children?  The public health implications are enormous.  
The fluidized-bed Liberty Energy plan certainly eliminates all the diseases 
in the sludge - even the resistant ones like BSE (mad cow disease) and SARS 
and avian flu.

Taking urban sewer waste and flinging it on farmland makes source-point 
pollution into 'non source point pollution'.  It doesn't make it go away. To 
hear Environment Hamilton talk, you'd think that they had no idea that their 
toxic toilet and industrial wastes were being smeared on farmfields.  You'd 
think that they endorsed the movement of methylated mercury, arsenic, and 
lead from their sludge into the environment.  They want funding to finance 
their urban corporate 'green' organization .. while refusing to address the 
current filthy sludge disposal practices that their urban sludge is causing 
in the countryside.  Hamilton Environment refused to address or even listen 
to sludge arguments from rural residents.  That isn't green that's urban 
NIMBY arrogance.   Proposed practices need to be compared with current 
practices.  State-of-the-art urban solutions to urban sludges carried out in 
urban industrial parks ...there is a certain logic  there...

The province is telling the cities that it is their job to handle their 
waste - even though the waste policies and permitting authority is in 
provincial hands!  This kind of jurisdictional malaise and finger pointing 
has become a Canadian national trademark.  There are old coal-fired plants 
that are gradually being shut down in Canada...as they are similarly being 
closed in the US.  Newer technologies have a much better environmental 
footprint...but there needs to be public education, needs to be proper 
permitting and enforcement if the public is to be reassured.  The province 
designs a fast track for renewable energy projects with a full set of 
requirements, controls, reports and conditions..but then the fast track 
becomes a slow track.  The Ministry can't both suck and blow.  It wants 
renewable energy that meets its requirements, it wants waste solutions 
urgently, and then when it gets compliant proposals it stalls out.  Here is 
a report on the pollution from the coal fired plants in Ontario...but they 
are still open..
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2004/2004-06-03-10.asp

Where is the provincial leadership?

This is a renewable energy biomass proposal...it would stop the emissions 
from the long drive to Michigan, stop the deposition of thousands of tonnes 
of lead, arsenic, mercury, selenium, petroleum hydrocarbons, on farmlands 
and into the foodchain.  The energy could be a clean replacement for the 
energy provided by the old coal fired plants we need to close.  This 
facility meets all the regulatory requirements, and would stop Ontario from 
inundating the USA landfills and Ontario farmlands with industrially 
contaminated fecal waste.  Does it really make sense for the Ministry to 
hold back permitting for a facility that solves these problems while it 
allows the smearing of sludge and the trucking to continue?  Where are the 
air shed studies on sludged farms? Where are the groundwater studies for 
sludged drinking wells?  Instead of solving both the energy problem and the 
waste problem...the MOE is sitting back and asking for more studies.

I note that the proposal to burn urban trash and tires has not been held up 
by the Ontario Minisitry of the environment.  The Lafarge Cement kilns have 
NO air emissions protection equipment...So why is the Ministry allowing 
Lafarge trash burning to move ahead while it holds up the Liberty energy 
from sludge proposal..a proposal that comes with top state of the art air 
emissions pollution controls?

Sure looks like the Ministry of the Environment in its usual gutless fashion 
is bowing to urban sensitivities and simply blowing off the outrage of the 
rural residents who are beset with increasing contamination from the 
unmitigated emissions from urbans wastes.


It looks like urbanites.. with their cloak of green...have the political ear 
of a timid and directionless Ministry...a Ministry caught in a web of 
expedient rural contamination practices...whether it is sewage sludge 
spreading, paper sludge deregulation, or cement kiln tire and trash burning. 
  Gord Miller is right...we need to have some policy discussions and 
regulatory clarity.  The Ministry is being pushed by urban residents who are 
pushing industrial parks and industrial waste into the unhappy rural 
communities ... who are then ignored by the Ministry.  No wonder farmers are 
refusing to spread sludge in Ontario. Farmers are pinching off the excretory 
functions of the city to get their attention.   It seems like the only way 
to get rural issues addressed.

While Ontario is trying to figure its way out of the waste dilemma - you fix 
it...no you fix it...
one interesting feature of the Liberty proposal is that it would not require 
taxpayer money to build the facility.  The plant is self financing as a 
power plant.  For more info see the link below.

http://www.libertyenergycentre.ca/
..........................................................................................

No sludge plant permit without air studies

By Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 6, 2006)
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment wants Liberty Energy to do more 
studies on air pollution and potential odour from its proposed 10-megawatt 
power plant, which would be fuelled by sewage sludge and waste wood.

Until the studies are done and results made public, the ministry won't 
decide whether to grant the California-based company an operating 
certificate on the basis of its environmental screening report or require it 
to go through a more thorough environmental assessment process.

Liberty proposes a plant in a heavily industrial area on Strathearne Avenue.

Brenda Johnson of Environment Hamilton, which wants the screening elevated 
to a full assessment, said she is pleased by the demand for more study 
"because if the government wants to go for clean energy, this is the 
direction it must go in."

Her organization would have to see the results before deciding whether to 
reconsider its bump-up request, she said.

Liberty CEO Wilson Nolan said the company's next step will be to meet with 
ministry technical staff to set terms of reference for the air study.

He said Liberty plans to eliminate concern over odours from stored wood 
waste by enclosing it in a building and installing a biofilter to clean air 
exhausted from the structure. Bump-up requests came from the City of 
Hamilton and nine other groups or individuals.

emcguinness at thespec.com

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146865816625&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815
..........................................................................................

No sludge plant permit without air studies

By Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 6, 2006)
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment wants Liberty Energy to do more 
studies on air pollution and potential odour from its proposed 10-megawatt 
power plant, which would be fuelled by sewage sludge and waste wood.

Until the studies are done and results made public, the ministry won't 
decide whether to grant the California-based company an operating 
certificate on the basis of its environmental screening report or require it 
to go through a more thorough environmental assessment process.

Liberty proposes a plant in a heavily industrial area on Strathearne Avenue.

Brenda Johnson of Environment Hamilton, which wants the screening elevated 
to a full assessment, said she is pleased by the demand for more study 
"because if the government wants to go for clean energy, this is the 
direction it must go in."

Her organization would have to see the results before deciding whether to 
reconsider its bump-up request, she said.

Liberty CEO Wilson Nolan said the company's next step will be to meet with 
ministry technical staff to set terms of reference for the air study.

He said Liberty plans to eliminate concern over odours from stored wood 
waste by enclosing it in a building and installing a biofilter to clean air 
exhausted from the structure. Bump-up requests came from the City of 
Hamilton and nine other groups or individuals.

emcguinness at thespec.com

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146865816625&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815