Sludge Watch ==> Rhode Island- Synagro upgrades sludge incinerator - Neighbors say smells better

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.woonsocketcall.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18571975&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=24361&rfi=6

Synagro upgrades make for better smell
By:JOSEPH FITZGERALD, Staff Writer
07/11/2007

WOONSOCKET - Connie St. Sauveur remembers the times when she would wake up 
in the middle of the night coughing and hacking from a "sulphur smelling 
mist" that would fill her Laval Street home uphill from the sludge 
incinerator on Cumberland Hill Road.
Lately, though, St. Sauveur has been sleeping a lot better.

Environmental upgrades at the city-owned sludge incinerator operated by 
Synagro, Inc. are completed and online and already resulting in tangible 
benefits, plant officials said Tuesday.
Neighborhood residents, who have complained for years about odors from the 
Cumberland Hill Road plant, say they've noticed a difference.
"It's not a huge difference, but there's a difference," says St. Sauveur, 
who has lived in a neighborhood off Cumberland Hill Road with her 
13-year-old daughter for the past 13 years.
The fact that there was little or no odor in the East Woonsocket 
neighborhood on a hot and humid day like Tuesday - the temperature at 2 
o'clock was 93 degrees - bodes well for her and her neighbors, she said.
As recently as two months ago, St. Sauveur had complained to the Department 
of Environmental Management about the foul odors coming from the plant. If 
you stand in her driveway and peer over the tree line in her backyard you 
can see the plant's new stack.
"We used to have to shut the windows all the time. For three days I had to 
get up because there was this mist in my house and I couldn't breathe," she 
said.
"Lately, it's been pretty good," she adds.
Synagro's new state-of-the-art fluidized bed incinerator completes a $12 
million environmental upgrade from the antiquated multiple hearth technology 
that was previously used at the facility, according to Project Manager 
Dennis Kamfonik.
A few years ago, the city signed a 20-year contract extension with Synagro, 
focused upon economic incentives for the recycling supplier and commitments 
to build a modern plant.
Synagro has run the Cumberland Hill Road plant since January 2000, when it 
acquired the now-defunct New England Treatment Corp. (NETCO).
Synagro trucks municipal sludge from some 40 communities in Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts to the incinerator, where the solids are filtered out in a 
process known as "dewatering." The remaining materials are dried at 
extremely high temperatures and reduced to a non-polluting ash which is 
disposed of at Central Landfill in Johnston. The filtered-out water is 
diverted to the city's Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant and, ultimately, 
discharged into the Blackstone River.

The new fully enclosed incinerator and a new 80x50 square foot biosolids 
building for unloading sludge are operating in special state-of-the-art 
negative pressurized structures. The structures, which have high-powered 
fans that suck air in, are designed to stop odors from escaping during any 
part of the process at the facility.
A new computer system is also in place to monitor and control all aspects of 
the incinerator operation allowing for adjustments at the click of a mouse 
throughout the process from offload, to incinerator temperature and constant 
stack monitoring.
The improvement not only make for cleaner smelling air, but they look 
better, too. The new stainless steel stack that was recently erected is a 
muted grey and designed to blend in with the skyline. State-of-the-art 
temperature control means there will not be any visible evaporation or steam 
throughout the year and an improved process for dealing with ash minimizes 
any dust.
"The old multiple hearth incinerator is permanently dismantled and we've had 
some interest from other operators who wan to use it for spare parts," said 
Kamfonik. "We are now putting the final touches and adjustments on the new 
incinerator and are in the process of cleaning up from the construction."
Trying to incrementally improve the sludge processing in conjunction with 
city wastewater operator Veolia, officials from the two companies and from 
the city say the number of complaints has dropped markedly. The companies 
jointly respond to a 24-hour hotline (401) 765-7623.
The improvements seem to have provided some relief to residents of the Oak 
Grove area of the city, near Hamlet Avenue, who have complained for decades 
- since the NETCO days - about strong sludge odors, which on some summer 
days have been described as horrible.

"There were times when we couldn't even sit in our own backyard or have a 
cookout," says St. Sauveur's mother, Claudette, who has lived in the 
neighborhood for more than 50 years. "Every so often you can still smell it, 
but it hasn't been bad recently."
"You can smell it more when you're driving by (on Cumberland Hill Road), but 
up here it hasn't been bad," said Richard Cote, who was spending the 
afternoon Tuesday with his nieces in a backyard on Newland Avenue. "The 
smells from the wastewater treatment plant are worse and don't seem better 
to me."
Even though odors from the plant have been a lot easier on her nostrils, 
Connie St. Sauveur worries that all the years of breathing in the air may 
come back to haunt her.
"I can't help but think that some day we're all going to have serious health 
problems," she says.