Sludge Watch ==> Hamilton Ontario - sludge power plant completes assessment phase

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The proposed sludge biomass power plant in Hamilton has completed its 
Environmental Assessment requirements.   Few people seem to be aware that 
what is new about this technology is not the use of sewage sludge as fuel, 
or the use of a fluidized bed technology - but the exceptional air emissions 
controls and energy production efficiency of the proposed facility.

A third of Ontario sewage sludge is currently incinerated. There are two 
fluidized beds in Durham Region east of Toronto - processing all of York 
Region sludge and 75% of Durham Region sludge . There are two fluidized beds 
in Peel Region west of Toronto- managing all the Peel sewage sludge.  
Highland Creek in Toronto's east end also processes a large fraction of 
Toronto sewage sludge.  You may want to tour these plants.

The use of fluidized bed technology on sludge isn't new.  What is new in the 
proposed  Liberty plant are two things: low emissions and high energy 
production. There are very low emissions rates for particulate, for dioxins, 
for mercury and other toxic substances using sewage sludge as fuel in the 
proposed Hamilton facility. The proposed plant is engineered to the much 
more stringent European air quality emissions standards.  What is also new 
about this facility is the use of the sewage sludge and chipped waste wood 
to produce 10 MW of power.  This requires highly energy-efficient equipment.

Remember that right now all of the City of Hamilton sewage sludge - with its 
burden of heavy metals, drugs, pathogens, is going on Ontario foodlands.  
This poses air, soil, water, wildlife, livestock, and food contamination 
issues.  At the proposed  Hamilton facility the pathogens are destroyed, the 
drugs are destroyed, and the metals are sequestered in the fly ash that is 
captured. The proposed energy from waste technology limits the spread of 
contamination in the countryside and into the food chain. It also reduces 
green house gases - gases currently emitted from composting, 
landfilling,long hauling, and land applying Ontario sludges.

Currently much of Ontario's sludge is trucked out to unwilling rural 
communities in New York state, Michigan, Ohio, and Quebec. The plan to 
compost some of Toronto's  sludge foundered when FertilVal Quebec went 
backrupt. Torontonians can drive the 8 hours to the site near Sherbrooke 
Quebec and visit a mountain of their toilet tailings at the abandonned 
FertiVal site - a dark black silouette you can see from the highway.

Similarly Ottawa residents  should visit 'Mount Ottawa' at the GSI sludge 
site in Quebec.  Once the facilities get the tipping fee, somehow the sludge 
becomes a permant aspect of the Quebec landscape. You can see what your tax 
dollars have wrought hundreds of miles from home.  Toronto taxpayers now 
spend over $15,000,000 per year to truck their sewage sludge far far away.

The whole idea of improving the environmental management of sludges is to 
move to technologies that do the least damage to the planet.  We need to 
phase out the more toxic industries, close the more toxic facilities, and 
implement technologies that have a smaller ecological footprint.  If we bar 
the way to clean renewable energy facilities, then we only extend the life 
of antique coal plants, nuclear energy, and the unsustainable disposal of 
Ontario sewer wastes onto farm, field, and food.


.........................................................................



Fuming over sludge plant approval

The Hamilton Spectator

February 23, 2008
Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 23, 2008)

Ontario has given Liberty Energy the go-ahead to build a $120-million, 
power-producing sewage sludge incinerator in east Hamilton.

It will be the first such plant in Canada and the second in North America.

Critics fear Toronto sludge will be trucked in to fuel the Strathearne 
Avenue plant that will burn a combination of sludge and wood waste, 
generating 10 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply 8,000 homes. They 
also fear the plant will release toxic chemicals in the lower city, where 
there are already many air pollution sources.

"There's no question that the big obstacle is over, but we still face a 
number of technical hurdles to meet the rigorous requirements for 
certificates of approval for air, noise and waste," said company CEO Wilson 
Nolan, who promises emission controls exceeding Ontario standards.

News of the approval came late yesterday from Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea 
Horwath, who revealed the Ontario Ministry of the Environment had rejected 
calls by the City of Hamilton and Environment Hamilton for a full 
environmental assessment. Instead, it accepted a screening study that 
concluded noise, air emissions and other environmental impacts could be kept 
to acceptable levels.

Horwath said she was "shocked and disappointed" the plant was approved 
"without the benefit of a rigorous, individual assessment when this 
technology is not really proven yet, making Hamiltonians into lab rats."

Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla, whose motion to ask for a full assessment was 
unanimously endorsed by council, called the ministry decision "a betrayal of 
the city."

"From our perspective," he said, "the site is not conducive to public health 
and our concerns about particulate emissions. We have an overconcentration 
of pollution sources in the lower city.

"Another site, preferably above the escarpment, would have been more 
feasible."

The ministry later confirmed the requests for a full assessment had been 
denied, but said the company would still need to obtain certificates of 
approval to operate. It also said Liberty is committed to installing 
continuous, in-stock emission monitors, to joining the Hamilton Air 
Monitoring Network and to setting up a community liaison committee.

The City of Hamilton spreads 53,000 tonnes or 1,250 truckloads of sludge a 
year on farm fields, and has a plan for a smaller incinerator at the 
Woodward Avenue sewage treatment plant. That is also opposed by Merulla.

The Liberty Energy Centre, to be built in two phases, is designed to handle 
up to 400,000 tonnes of sludge and 150,000 tonnes of other organic waste 
such as tree trimmings, greenhouse waste, grass and garden clippings.

The company says its bubbling, fluidized-bed incinerator will instantly 
gasify or vaporize the fuel, then burn the gas to produce electricity. It 
promises to be much cleaner than old incinerators, such as Hamilton's 
infamous SWARU trash burner, and will produce no bottom ash. It says fly ash 
will be filtered out and the exhaust scrubbed to meet tough European 
standards.

Environment Hamilton has said emissions estimates "suggest that the 
potential exists" for the plant to double Hamilton's levels of 
cancer-causing dioxin and significantly increase other airborne toxics. 
Liberty says, however, its process is so efficient it would take 38 years to 
produce one gram of dioxin.

Because it will burn organic waste, not fossil fuels, its renewable energy 
output will be considered carbon neutral, releasing the same amount of 
carbon dioxide as was removed from the atmosphere when the fuels were 
created.

Liberty first applied in 2005 for approval as an electricity generator and 
completed a Schedule B class assessment process, including a 500-page human 
health impact study. Before the ministry acted on requests for a full 
assessment of that application, it changed its rules and required Liberty to 
reapply as a waste-management facility, a decision described by John Dolbec 
of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce as "fundamentally unfair, unfair and 
bizarre."

Nolan hired ex-MPP Trevor Pettit to deal with the city and provincial 
governments, then retained several former senior ministry officials working 
for Hill & Knowlton consultants to help win approval of its second 
application.

The Minnesota Metropolitan Council operates a sludge-burning power plant 
with technology similar to Liberty's, and California-based Liberty is 
seeking approval for three plants in its home state.

emcguinness at thespec.com

http://www.thespec.com/article/329319