Whether or not it will affect waste disposal in Dufferin County, the council might take heart from the most recent development at Ottawabased Plasco Energy Group.

Plasco has a patented thermal treatment system, a form of gasification, that has for several months been converting some of Ottawa's solid household wastes into electricity - in a pilot plant that turns almost all residue into usable materials.

Dufferin county councillors recently toured the Ottawa facility, at a time when the council was awaiting responses to its Request for Qualifications to provide a thermal treatment facility.

They returned impressed by what they had seen, to the extent that one of them said he had been told that Plasco might be receptive to financing such a facility in Dufferin.

Now, it appears that such financing could become a reality. On Monday, Plasco announced that First Reserve Corp. of Greenwich, Conn., was purchasing $35 million of its common shares. First Reserve is a private equity fund that specializes in the energy sector, according to a story in The Globe and Mail. The pilot Plasco plant has been running for several months, processing about 85 tonnes of garbage daily, and producing four megawatts of electricity. The plant qualifies for the provincial Special Offer Program, which pays 11 cents a kilowatt hour for energy fed to the Hydro One grid.

The good news for Dufferin might be twofold. First, according to figures published by The Globe, Plasco's current capital investment is about $90 million, and First Reserve has allocated an additional $115-million investment. This could mean that the capital is available for Plasco to build outside Ottawa, and there's an indication that it is looking elsewhere in the province. Secondly, a single plant could handle all of Dufferin's solid waste - possibly with a tipping fee of no more than $65 a tonne.

The bad news, if that's what it is, would be that the council has not followed through on what might have been an indication of willingness to fund a plant here. CAO Linda Dean said there has been no county discussion beyond reports of the tour. Ms. Dean said proposals on composting systems have to be filed by Dec. 17.

According to The Globe, one tonne of waste processed by the Plasco system provides 1,400 kwh of energy, 15 kilograms of vitrified slag for use as an aggregate, 5 kg of sulphur as a soil enhancement, 1.3 kg of heavy metals, 300 litres of potable water, and 5-10 kg of salt for de-icing.

What kind of investment is First Reserve making in energy? Its vicepresident, Glenn Payne, told the Globe that it has allocated 10 per cent of its $7.8-billion fund to renewable energy.

"Our investment [in Plasco] builds on our knowledge of the wasteto energy business through prior investments and our continued appetite for economically attractive renewable energy opportunities," The Globe reported Mr. Payne as saying.

Plasco is headed by Rob Bryden, best known as former owner of the Ottawa Senators.