Guelph Mercury - May 04, 2010
Scott Tracey
stracey@guelphmercury.com
GUELPH — Recent history has taught Ken Spira to be leery, especially of officials promising they can operate any kind of composting facility without odours.
So the east-end resident and president of the Guelph Waste Management Coalition fears the worst after an announcement last week that Guelph Hydro will soon build a facility to convert abattoir waste into green energy.
“I don’t know how to feel about it just yet,” said Spira, who learned of the plan through an article in Saturday’s Mercury. “If it goes down the same road as the experimental composter obviously I’d be very concerned.”
Spira formed his coalition to battle the city’s former organics processing plant, which closed in 2006 amid odour complaints which ultimately saw the city pay a $40,000 fine.
Last Friday, officials unveiled a plan which will see Guelph Hydro build and operate an anaerobic digester near the city’s Waste Resource Innovation Centre. The plant will break down by-products from the nearby Cargill Meat Solutions facility, capturing methane and using it to power a generator which officials expect to create enough electricity to power 900 homes.
Hydro officials said the digestion process takes place inside an airtight container, trapping odours inside the facility.
Spira conceded the proposal sounds like a good way to reduce carbon emissions while generating electricity “but at the same time it doesn’t sound good. Obviously it’s the odour issue that concerns me.”
Mark Unsworth, vice-president of business development at Guelph Hydro, understands those concerns. But he said the utility has done its homework and is confident it can operate the facility odour-free.
While using anaerobic digestion to break down beef by-products is quite rare, Unsworth noted the technology “has been around for years and years and years” and is becoming increasingly common on farms.
Unsworth said waste material will be used as it is generated.
“This is a 24/7 operation, so we don’t expect to be stockpiling material until it gets into the processor,” he stressed.
For Spira, the idea of meat byproducts breaking down sounds too much like composting.
“I’m definitely concerned about odours, but I don’t know if I’m justifiably concerned about odours,” he said.
The Ontario government has committed $1 million to the project to cover engineering and obtain environmental approvals.
Unsworth said this phase will take eight to 12 months to complete, and the plant should be operational within about 12 months after that.
“It’s normally about a three-year process, and that’s about what we’re looking at,” Unsworth said, noting planning for the project began about a year ago.