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

Dive Temporary:

• Members of the stable waste authority board in Palm Seashore County, Florida, unanimously authorized on Wednesday a $1.5 billion plan to construct a brand new incineration facility by 2034. The county already has an extra mass burn combustion facility that opened in 2015, however officers say they should change a neighboring refuse-derived gasoline 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 forms of waste. That facility is at the moment projected to achieve capability in 2057.
• Some environmental advocates opposed the development of a brand new incinerator over air emission considerations, however board members mentioned this was the best choice out there to them given the challenges of constructing new landfill capability within the state.

Dive Perception:

Palm Seashore County is one in every of 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 the moment constructing its personal thermomechanical therapy facility — Reworld and the county celebrated a construction milestone for the project final month.

Elsewhere, Pinellas County additionally authorized on Wednesday a $320.9 million contract with FCC Environmental Companies to proceed working its incinerator for the following 10 years, The St. Pete Catalyst reported. The corporate is taking on 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 often 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 keeping with the corporate.

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

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

Reworld mentioned 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 mentioned in an announcement following the stable waste authority’s vote.

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

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

In consequence the board in the end voted to approve constructing the alternative waste-to-energy facility on the positioning 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 potentialities. 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 anticipated to start operations round 2034.

Environmental advocates have opposed the development of a brand new incinerator. Whereas the stable waste authority board didn’t but select how a lot new capability the power would have, they floated the potential of constructing it as much as 3,000 tons per day. At these ranges, the power can be one of many largest sources of business emissions within the county, in keeping with 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 obtained opposition from a spread 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 have 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, mentioned Wednesday.