| Waste Energy Facility
Background
The Waste to Energy plant was constructed in 1986 and began accepting waste in April of 1987. A recycling program was implemented in December of 1988. The goal of the program is to keep elements that are harmful and decrease the life of the incinerator (such as glass and metals) out of the waste stream. The Waste to Energy facility is permitted to process 80 tons per day. It operates 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. The facility has a pit that is 20 feet deep where the industrial wastes and sorted wastes from the sorting facility are mixed together. A grapple picks up the waste and loads it into the incinerator where it is burned at 1,800°F. During the incineration process 30,000 M pounds of steam, at 170 pounds of pressure, is generated. The steam is sold or used by the following:
Monitoring Methodology The Waste To Energy plant is monitored by the Continuous Emission Monitoring System which constantly monitors the following:
The maximum opacity permitted by the State of Minnesota is 10%. The Pope/Douglas normal opacity is 0% to .5%. The white plume that is coming out of the stack is simply steam vapor. Each quarter, the Continuous Emission Monitoring System records have to be compiled into a report and sent to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul to prove that Pope/Douglas is in compliance. All of the parameters are indicators of how thorough the burn process is. There is a limit on Carbon Monoxide (CO). The limit is 100 ppm (parts per million). Pope/Douglas results indicate 0-15 ppm. Another type of test run is called Scheduled Stack tests which occur annually on each unit for mercury and dioxins. The limits on mercury are 80 micrograms for dry standard cubic meters which are extremely minuscule. The latest tests performed at Pope/Douglas are:
The limit for Dioxin is 125 micrograms per dscm. The Unit 1 February 2006 test was 2.06 micrograms dscm and the Unit 2 March 2006 test result was 2.84 micrograms dscm. These test results show that Pope/Douglas is in compliance and the emissions at the Pope/Douglas Waste To Energy plant are well below the standard. However; it is important to realize that the emissions are a direct result of the material people discard into the trash. |
The Pope/Douglas Solid Waste Joint Powers Board was formed in 1983. The purpose of the organization is to own and operate a solid waste management system. The system is owned and governed by Pope County at 25% and Douglas County at 75%.
