Trash-fueled power plants have proved a great success in Kentucky, turning methane generated naturally in landfills into electricity without the environmental downside associated with coal- fired generating stations.

Monday, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which established the first such plant in Kentucky three years ago in Walton, broke ground on its fifth plant, at Rumpke of Kentucky Inc.'s Pendleton County landfill near Butler.

"It's a great endeavor -- great for the region and great for the environment," said state Sen. Katie Stine, a Republican from Southgate. "I wish we could do more things like this."

Stine climbed into the seat of a backhoe Monday to turn the first bucket full of dirt for the $4 million project, which is expected to be operational by January.

Trash produces methane gas and carbon dioxide as part of its natural decomposition process.

To convert waste to energy, gas wells extract methane gas from the landfill and a machine called a blower consolidates the extracted gas and delivers it to an energy generation facility. There, the gas fuels combustion engines that spin generators to produce electric power.

The Pendleton County Landfill Gas Plant will produce 3.2 megawatts of power a day, enough to supply electricity to 2,300 homes.

Along with solar and wind power, landfill power plants are considered environmentally friendly because they are less harmful to the environment than those burning fossil fuels.

The Pendleton County plant will annually eliminate 6,375 tons of methane and 18,823 tons of carbon dioxide that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere, according to Rumpke and East Kentucky Power.

According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates, that is the environmental equivalent of planting 38,173 trees, eliminating the emissions of 26,788 cars or not burning 685 rail cars full of coal.

While the landfill is owned and operated by Rumpke, the power plant will be owned and operated by East Kentucky Power, headquartered in Winchester. Rumpke will sell the methane gas to the plant under a 20-year contract.

East Kentucky Power's other landfill gas plants are at Bavarian Landfill near Walton, Green Valley Landfill near Greenup, Laurel Ridge Landfill near London and Pearl Hollow Landfill near Elizabethtown.

The Walton plant, the first in Kentucky when it opened three years ago, has been "a great success," said Meredith Boyd of East Kentucky Power. "It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

The four plants now generate a total of nearly 12 megawatts of electricity a day and supply power to 8,800 homes. The Pendleton County plant will up that total to almost 15 megawatts a day and send power to a total of more than 11,000 homes.

The Pendleton plant will be located in the service territory of Owen Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Owenton.

Power generated at the Pendleton plant and at other methane gas plants is sold by East Kentucky Power Cooperative to customers of 14 electric cooperatives in Kentucky through a program called EnviroWatts.

Customers participating in EnviroWatts pay a $2.75 surcharge on their monthly bills per 100-killowatt block of power. The average home uses about 10 or 12 blocks per month.