Our view: Use of landfill gas for power is innovative idea

May 08, 2008 03:31 am

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When it comes to the possible uses of methane gas generated by rotting trash in old landfills, it wouldn't take much thought to prefer electric power over stench.

But not every closed landfill has an owner as progressive as the Covanta energy company, which bought the 70-acre Ward Hill landfill and the adjacent trash incinerator in Haverhill from Refuse Fuels. Anyone who travels down Interstate 495 toward Andover is probably familiar with the incinerator and landfill, both of which are located next to the highway.

The firm has installed a system to capture the methane and says it produces enough energy — 1.6 megawatts — to power the electrical needs of 2,000 homes. The company believes the landfill will produce at that level for the next 10 to 15 years.

That is a dramatic, and productive, change from the 1970s and '80s, when neighbors marched on City Hall to protest the intolerable odor that drove them inside during the summer.

Indeed, that is exactly what has been going on here in Newburyport for the past several years, where the foul odors coming from the Crow Lane landfill have prompted desperate neighborhood complaints and eventually a court injunction in 2006.

In Haverhill, with the landfill now closed and covered, the stench is gone, and a piping system that draws the methane gas out of the trash mountain has transformed it from an odor irritant to a significant energy supply.

It is also environmentally beneficial to burn it. If methane gas simply escapes into the air, it is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a contributor to global warming.

Company officials are looking to go even greener — they are about to launch a study to see if the average wind speed is enough to move a large wind turbine that could generate 1.5 to 2.5 megawatts of power. If it is successful, the combination of wind, methane and trash incineration could generate enough electricity to power the entire city.

That is about the best possible use of the rubbish that has become a reality of modern life.