Landfill emits $250,000 worth of methane

County government must decide whether to sell or use landfill's methane gas

T. J. ROYAL

Appalachian State University believes that North Carolina landfills produce enough methane gas to become economic boons for to their communities, including Edgecombe County.

Stan Steury, a program director at the university's Energy Center, said at Monday's county commissioners meeting that Edgecombe County Landfill emits $250,000 worth of "half-strength" methane gas each year.

Also, the "significant" amount of gas that is produced by part of the landfill would support a project for the next 15-20 years, Steury said. It is now up to the county commissioners to decide whether to burn the gas for a profit, or to use it as an energy source.

"Our goals are to create jobs and economic development" and reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, Steury told the commissioners Monday.

"(We) can do all three of these things at the same time" by collecting the methane gas and using it, he added.

The university's Energy Center has been studying landfills in Bertie, Rockingham, Columbus, Robeson, McDowell, Cleveland and Scotland counties, to see how much gas they have and how they would want to use it, Steury said.

In Columbus County, Steury said the government decided to use their landfill's methane to generate electricity. They will also use the wasted heat from the process to help produce algae, which will be used to create biodiesel fuel.

In Rockingham County, the government is considering powering an "energy park" with their gas. The park would power pottery kilns and also produce electricity for high-tech businesses, Steury said.

The other option would be to have companies pay Edgecombe County to simply burn its methane, so those companies could continue to pollute the air. The result is an overall drop in air pollution, as well as extra revenue for the county.

That is how the market for "carbon credits" works.

Steury said the United States does not have a regulated carbon credit market, but several organizations work as exchanges to gauge the credits' value.

The Chicago Climate Exchange is one such organization, and Steury said that it has already looked at the viability of Edgecombe's methane. So far, he said Edgecombe's supply appears sellable, if that's the route the county takes.

Steury also said that one such company has already expressed interest in buying Edgecombe County's methane as carbon credits. He declined to name the company, but said he expects a proposal from it within the next 30 days.

But County Commissioners Chairman Charlie Harrell said that instead of just selling the county's methane, the commissioners would "prefer creating jobs if at all possible.

"Selling carbon credits is just a monetary thing, and I think jobs are more important to us than that," Harrell said.

But County Manager Lorenzo Carmon added that even if the county government decided, in the beginning, to burn off the methane and earn revenue from it, "we're getting more out of it than we are now."

Edgecombe County's Landfill and Solid Waste Director Danny Bagley said he would like to see the county sell its gas as carbon credits initially.

"At least we'd have some income coming for the county. And we go from there," Bagley said.

Steury said the Edgecombe County Landfill would be an ideal place for a phased gas collection project. He suggested that gas-collection equipment could tap into the landfill's outer wells, to start collecting the gas. Then the proceeds from that gas could be used to build up the gas-collection infrastructure, Steury said.

The ASU Energy Center's study is financed by roughly $250,000 from the Golden LEAF and Z. Smith Reynolds foundations, and have not cost money for Edgecombe County, Steury said.

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