Palm Beach County, Florida, approves $1.5B plan for second incinerator

Dive Temporary:

• Members of the strong waste authority board in Palm Seashore County, Florida, unanimously permitted on Wednesday a $1.5 billion plan to construct a brand new incineration facility by 2034. The county already has a further mass burn combustion facility that opened in 2015, however officers say they should exchange a neighboring refuse-derived gas plant that opened in 1989.
• The county is trying so as to add disposal capability because it contends with a rising inhabitants. Palm Seashore County owns the North County Landfill, the place it has traditionally despatched a mix of incinerator ash, C&D waste and different sorts of waste. That facility is at present projected to achieve capability in 2057.
• Some environmental advocates opposed the development of a brand new incinerator over air emission considerations, however board members stated this was the best choice obtainable to them given the challenges of constructing new landfill capability within the state.

Dive Perception:

Palm Seashore County is one among a number of in Florida trying into new incineration capability.

Miami-Dade County has spent greater than three years debating the possibility of a new facility, and neighboring Broward County has thought-about a alternative facility of its personal. Pasco County is at present constructing its personal thermomechanical remedy facility — Reworld and the county celebrated a construction milestone for the project final month.

Elsewhere, Pinellas County additionally permitted on Wednesday a $320.9 million contract with FCC Environmental Providers to proceed working its incinerator for the following 10 years, The St. Pete Catalyst reported. The corporate is taking up operations from Reworld on the website.

Palm Seashore County’s Renewable Power Facility 2, or REF2, was thought-about the primary new mass burn combustion facility within the nation in 20 years when it opened in 2015. Able to processing as much as 3,000 tons per day of waste, it greater than doubled the county’s incineration capability.

Reworld, then generally known as Covanta, purchased the operations and maintenance contracts for the county’s two incineration amenities from a subsidiary of Babcock & Wilcox in 2018. On the time, the amenities generated about $60 million in income per yr, in response to the corporate.

Reworld has continued to function the amenities since then. Mike Duff, Reworld’s senior director of enterprise improvement, praised the county’s strategy to waste-to-energy throughout public feedback on the strong waste authority’s assembly. REF2 has hosted officers from different elements of Florida and across the nation to point out off the power’s air pollution management expertise.

Reworld’s working contract for REF2 expires in 2034. Whereas Reworld at present operates each incinerators in Palm Seashore County, the brand new facility’s operations contract will exit to bid. Procurement is predicted to start late next year, in response to a presentation the strong waste authority shared with board members.

Reworld stated in an announcement it plans to take part in that course of. “Reworld applauds Palm Seashore County for its imaginative and prescient and continued dedication to advancing sustainable waste options,” the corporate stated in an announcement following the strong waste authority’s vote.

Beneath present contract phrases, the previous Renewable Power Facility 1, or REF1, will should be shut down by September 2029. Authority workers thought-about the opportunity of extending the power’s life for a further 5 years whereas they prepped a brand new website for the alternative facility. Doing so would price an estimated $80 million, Dan Pellowitz, govt director of the strong waste authority, instructed the board.

However the county would even have needed to fill in a pond on the proposed new website so as to put together it for a brand new facility. Doing so would add one other $60 million price and in addition require a allow from the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers, which might take two years to be permitted, stated Pellowitz.

In consequence the board in the end voted to approve constructing the alternative waste-to-energy facility on the location of the present REF1. Whereas that capability is faraway from service, Palm Seashore County plans to ship extra waste tonnages to different landfills within the state — Pellowitz talked about WM’s Okeechobee Landfill and Waste Connections’ JED Landfill as prospects. The county won’t improve the tonnage it sends to its personal landfill throughout that point.

Pellowitz estimated that the added capability from the brand new deliberate incinerator will prolong the lifespan of the county’s landfill previous 2060. The brand new facility is predicted to start operations round 2034.

Environmental advocates have opposed the development of a brand new incinerator. Whereas the strong waste authority board didn’t but select how a lot new capability the power would have, they floated the opportunity of constructing it as much as 3,000 tons per day. At these ranges, the power could be one of many largest sources of commercial emissions within the county, in response to a report from the Sierra Membership.

In response to criticism from advocates representing the native Sierra Membership chapter at Wednesday’s assembly, Pellowitz famous that the county explored constructing a brand new landfill in recent times, however in the end acquired opposition from a variety of advocates, together with the Sierra Membership.

“Sierra Membership was the one group that opposed each the landfill and REF2,” he famous.

Whereas different Florida counties like Miami-Dade have explored composting and different efforts to reduce the amount of material sent to disposal, board members in Palm Seashore County had been skeptical that such initiatives might meaningfully scale back tonnages.

”For those who say zero waste, it will by no means occur,” Maria Marino, county mayor and a member of the board, stated Wednesday.