“Dufferin Eco Energy Park” DEEP should be renamed “Dufferin Gas Chambers”.

Over 70,000 tonnes per year has been approved to be vaporized by a plasma torch at temperatures more than 6,000 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than the surface of the sun; at the DEEP centre, and the timeline has been amended to fast forward. (by-law 2009-42)

Unlike incinerators which use combustion to break down garbage, there is little to no burning or oxidation in the process(some oxygen is in the garbage itself). The heat from plasma burners causes pyrolysis. Plasma torches can operate in airtight vessels, hence my interpretation “Dufferin Gas Chambers”.

How was the proposal for this garbage Plasma Arc facility started? On February 28, 2008, David Pasieka from Bulrush Clean Energy (formerly known as EEC Energy Corporation) presented a Power Point presentation on the status of the feasibility study for a commercial pilot on the Dufferin Energy Park Lands off 89 highway near Grand Valley. Also in attendance were representatives of Conestoga Rovers and Associates, an engineering company working with Bulrush on the project. Bulrush proposed to lease land from Dufferin to design, build, own and operate this site for 20-25 years.

The initial proposal was to dispose of “green bin” waste. Moved by Warden Oosterhof and seconded by Winston Uytenbogaart, County Council initiated a feasibility study for the importation of organic waste to the County-owned land, Dufferin Eco Energy Park, for a 20-year lease. The name is misleading, since as the Banner stated on Friday, Jan. 9, 2009, the feds contribute to Melancthon Eco Power: “The federal government is contributing cash to the Melancthon EcoPower Centre – commercial wind turbines operating in Dufferin County’s north end.... The EcoPower Centre is wind turbines, and the EcoPower Energy Park is garbage plasma incineration.

What are the byproducts of this plasma garbage dump? Three byproducts of the plasma gasification process are synthetic gas (syngas), slag and heat. Syngas is a mixture of several gases but mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide. If the garbage contains a lot of carbon-based material (organic waste), then you’ll get more gas. Inorganic garbage doesn’t produces much gas.

My first concern is that when the project was initially presented, Bullrush spoke only about organic waste garbage which would produce much hydrogen gas for power.

However, now the DEEP centre is to be used for all garbage, which includes medical waste and chemically contaminated waste. Water is also a necessary component of the system to clean the gasses.

“The process does generate a wastewater stream that will be treated on-site and then require trucking to an off-site water treatment plant.”

What is in the wastewater stream? How is it treated on site? What offsite water treatment plant is involved? What are the trucking and cleaning costs to clean the water? What are the risks?

Cancer – Gasification, considered by some to be more “high tech” than mass burn incinerators also creates pollution. According to EPA test data, compared to mass burn incinerators gasification units emitted more nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog, and ground level ozone, and can emit more dioxins and furans.” Dioxins are a class of cancer causing agents. They are persistent, and take a long time to break down, toxic and accumulate in the tissues of humans and animals. Dioxins enter the human body through the food we eat, the air we breathe and skin. Cancers linked to dioxins include lymphomas and cancers of the lung, liver, skin, soft tissue, oral and nasal cavities. Dioxins and furans have also been linked with breast and testicular cancer.”

Far more energy would be saved and fewer health and environmental impacts-including cancerwould result from reusing, recycling and composting materials. In a world of depleting resources it makes no sense to incinerate materials when safer options exist.”

Slag Leaching Arsenic and Cadmium – There is considerable uncertainty about the quality of the “slag” produced by plasma arc technology. While vendors claim the contaminants are encapsulated in the slag, which could be used for various building materials, there are concerns about carcinogens such as arsenic and cadmium leaching and how this might impact any “beneficial use” of the material” – www.preventcancernow.ca

“The only two commercial plasma arc facilities in the U.S. both have had huge problems with the plasma arc technology. One is the Hawaii Vitrification Facility in Oahu that has been plagued with problems including being closed for an extended period due to damage to the refractory of the kilnresulting in the illegal stockpiling of medical waste. The other is the ATG in Richland, Washington that closed after several years of failed attempts to operate at capacity due to equipment problems.” “Tallahassee, Florida Proposed Plasma Arc Gasification Facility Unproven”

Incinerators in Disguise – The Greenaction website includes information about the giant Elara gasification plant in Nagareyama, Chiba prefecture, Japan.

The initial proposal was for five times less garbage. Now that the Michigan dump is scheduled to close in 2010 to Toronto’s garbage, who is going to get their garbage , not to mention Peel’s and Durham’s? How often is the DEEP centre to be shut down for maintenance? Guess who gets everyone’s garbage then? Local municipalities have been approached to look after the waste during down time at the DEEP centre.

On Tuesday Oct. 20, 2009, Newswire released an article “AlterNRG Corp. and Dufferin County sign agreement to develop a two megawatt energy recovery facility.” Isn’t it interesting that it took until Dec. 10/09 for the By-law 2009-42 to be approved by Dufferin Council? In the Oct. 20, 2009 Newswire article they say that Dufferin County made the deal in May 2009 where they selected AlterNRG as the technology provider and initial operator for the energy recovery facility, which will use Westinghouse Plasma Gasification Technology.

The cost of the project is $32 million. The plant is to start in late 2010 and be fully operational by late 2012.

AlterNRG is the owner of Westinghouse Plasma technology.

They are a Calgarybased plasma gasification developer.

AlterNRG is working with Geoplasma.

Like the ridiculous wind turbines, I suppose DEEP will similarly be constructed without proper constraints. Frank Doyle of Honolulu concluded that utilizing Plasma Arc/Torch would significantly increase the cost of waste disposal and would not provide any environmental advantages to justify such cost.

Joan Lever Melancthon