The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

June 11, 2009

Officials consider new energy source

T. J. ROYAL

Two Edgecombe County officials learned more about energy conservation methods the county could use during a trip to Appalachian State University in Boone this week.

County Manager Lorenzo Carmon and County Landfill Director Danny Bagley joined officials from more than a half-dozen other counties at the ASU Energy Center Monday and Tuesday.

While at the conference this week, Carmon said that the idea of placing value on something that's been overlooked, such as methane gas produced from rotting trash in a landfill, was appealing to learn more about.

Back in February, the Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners signed an agreement with Environmental Credit Corp. to install the methane gas equipment at the landfill. The agreement stated that Edgecombe County would assume ownership over the equipment after around six years, with the company taking part of the profits from the sale of the gas.

Carmon said that Watauga County has been burning off methane gas from its landfill, in order to be compensated from companies looking to lower their pollution rates. Edgecombe County is looking to have equipment installed to allow it to do that as well.

But Carmon added that he was interested in the "end-user" piece of the methane gas equation; figuring out who would use the methane gas, and for what purpose. "We're still trying to figure out an end-user" for the methane gas that seeps out of the Edgecombe County Landfill, he added.

Bagley noted that the state and the federal government are wanting for the different energy sources to somehow be used to create more jobs.

And except for a project in Avery County, where it is looking at operating a greenhouse and a pottery kiln with its methane gas, Bagley said that Edgecombe County has been "pretty far ahead" of other counties who are just looking into the possibility of using the gas.

He added, however, that there has been "not much movement" so far from Environmental Credit Corp. in installing any methane gas equipment at the landfill.

"I'm hoping we’ll have some (equipment) by the end of the year" so the county can begin at least flaring off its methane gas, and possibly obtaining revenue from the carbon credits, Bagley said.

In the February agreement, Environmental Credit Corp. put a floor of $36,000 that the county would receive in revenue from its landfill's methane gas.

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