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Politics & Government

Woonsocket Considers Waste To Energy

Plan would add a power plant that uses heat from the city's incinerator to generate electricity.

Woonsocket officials are looking into options to add a waste to energy plant on to the incinerator on Cumberland Hill Road.  The plant would use the heat that is already being created by burning sludge and turn it into electricity.  But first, Woonsocket Rep. Jon D. Brien must get a bill through the General Assembly that changes Rhode Island law to allow a waste to energy facility in Woonsocket.

The current law, passed in the early 90s, places a statewide ban on “waste to energy combustion of any sort or matter.”

In the past, Rep. Brien tried to get rid of this line as well as another line that bans new incineration of any kind in Rhode Island.  That was fought by South County environmentalists, he said.

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Environmental groups have argued that any change in the law would reduce the state's incentives to recycle and lower the amount of waste produced, and lock Rhode Island into a long term contract to supply wastes to profit making companies that burn it to create energy.

“Now I’m going at it to allow a waste to energy facility in just Woonsocket,” Brien said, “Because as it is we’re already incinerating in Woonsocket, because we burn sludge.  It’s not like other cities and towns would be affected by it, they wouldn’t.”

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Woonsocket officials are currently working with the operators of the plant, Synagro, to hash out a deal to allow them to build a boiler attached to the incinerator which would generate electricity by using the heat from the burning of sludge.  The boiler would create steam which would power a turbine.  The sludge is waste matter generated at the Wastewater treatment plant.

“[Synagro] is already burning the sludge,” said Public Works Director Sheila McGauvran, “The energy is going up a smokestack. By installing a generator they can convert that wasted energy into electrical energy.”

McGauvran said the plant could generate up to 300,000 kw hours per month.  All of that energy could be used by the wastewater treatment plant, she said.

“If they did send the electricity out into the grid, they would get paid at the prevailing rate,” said McGauvran, “But, we could negotiate with them to sell it directly to us at a reduced rate.”

Synagro refused to comment because they are currently in negotiations with the city.  Although Synagro operates sludge removal and incineration at many facilities across the country, they were recently involved in a major bribery scandal in Detroit.    Monica Conyers, a city council member, was bribed by Synagro representatives to renew a $1.2 billion contract with the city of Detroit in 2009.  

The Environmental Protection Agency has classified waste to energy plants as renewable energy, according to an article on their website.  In that report the EPA warned that items mixed into trash can cause emissions problems and that ash produced from incineration must be closely monitored.  However, these concerns don’t affect Woonsocket because the city’s incinerator is already carefully monitored and municipal waste is not burned, only wastewater sludge.

In April of 2010, the New York Times, wrote a feature article titled “Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags”, which detailed the waste to energy facilities popping up in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany.  The article expounded on waste to energy’s cleanliness, ability to reduce landfill use and the cheap energy created in the process.

New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts already have waste to energy systems.  Even Hawaii, a state dependent on its beaches and landscape, has a waste to energy plant.

 “The technology in waste to energy facilities has gotten so advanced that you can no longer make the argument that there’s going to be all kinds of pollutants spewing into the air,” said Brien, “We need to have an honest straight forward conversation and leave the hyperbole out of it.”

Editor's note: Brien's bill, which is scheduled for a hearing on March 24, would allow Woonsocket to investigate all potential for waste to energy plants in the city, and is not limited to the incinerator on Cumberland Hill Road.

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