Landfill Plan for Bioreactor is 'Innovative'

Apr 17 - Columbia Daily Tribune

Columbia officials are moving forward with plans to use an experimental technology at the city's landfill that would break down waste faster, increase the facility's life span and create gas that can help power the city.

The technology is called a bioreactor, and people in the waste and energy businesses describe it as a valuable asset to the community.

Like a giant compost pile, bioreactors use moisture to break down organic waste much quicker than conventional methods. Most landfills in the United States -- including Columbia's Peabody Road facility -- employ a "dry tomb" method of disposal, where garbage is compacted and kept dry, causing materials to break down over decades rather than years.

A side effect of the bioreactor is the production of methane gas, which the city plans to capture and use to make electricity. That's convenient because Columbia voters overwhelmingly approved a measure in 2004 requiring the city's Water and Light Department to gradually increase reliance on renewable energy.

The 2004 ballot initiative, approved by 78 percent of voters, requires 2 percent of Columbia's energy output to be from renewable sources by 2008.

One percent of the city's electricity already derives from landfill-generated gas from Illinois.

Jay Hasheider, energy services supervisor for the city utility, said landfill gas from the Columbia facility could account for another 1 percent of the city's total energy output.

"We're looking on the order of about a megawatt and a half," he said.

The Columbia City Council will consider a bill at its meeting tomorrow that would give the Water and Light and Public Works departments the go-ahead to find a designer for the $3 million project. The design cost is $300,000.

In December, council members agreed to seek a designer for the facility, which would be one of the first constructed in Missouri. Construction on the bioreactor is tentatively scheduled to begin this year and should be completed by mid-2007.

The bioreactor should be operational by 2008.

Covering 8 or 9 acres, the bioreactor would be developed at the 107-acre Columbia Sanitary Landfill at the east end of Peabody Road in northeast Columbia.

Dan Dasho, Water and Light director, said he expected prospective designers to return proposals to the city as soon as next month or early June.

Money for the design work was included in a November ballot issue. Construction costs likely will be paid for through a $60 million ballot issue for energy infrastructure upgrades that voters will see in August.

"We wanted to get started on this," City Manager Bill Watkins said. "We think it's innovative. I don't think there's another one quite like it in Missouri."

Water and Light will oversee construction and operation of the facility.

"Our job is to provide electricity," Dasho said. "That is our area of expertise."

In other business tomorrow, the council will vote on a plan to buy 50 megawatts of electricity from a power plant in southwest Illinois. The plan has angered some environmental and health groups who say the plant will pollute the surrounding area and hurt nearby residents with toxins.

-----

To see more of the Columbia Daily Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.columbiatribune.com.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.