Ansonia’s sewer sludge has been bothering Board of Aldermen president Stephen Blume for years.
The city shells out hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to get it trucked out and disposed of.
So about two years ago, Blume started investigating other options with Mayor James Della Volpe and members of the city’s Energy Improvement District Board.
On Tuesday, Blume unveiled the result of the lengthy research: A plan to transform sewer sludge into energy.
How?
Blume’s plan involves building an “anaerobic digestion” facility on about 2 acres behind the city’s waste water treatment plant on North Division Street.
Inside the facility, large tanks would house microorganisms and bacteria, which would eat up the sewer sludge and other waste and turn it into a biogas that can be used to power turbines for energy.
Click here for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Anaerobic Digestion 101” fact sheet.
Blume said the facility would be built by a private company and wouldn’t cost the city anything.
The Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to sign a letter of intent with New York company Greenpoint Energy Partners.
The letter isn’t a contract: It simply allows Greenpoint Energy Partners to start looking for funding for the project — estimated at about $15 to $20 million.
Greenpoint representative Chris Timbrell said the project would be funded from two places:
- State and federal grants
- Private investors
Timbrell said an investor from Brooklyn is interested in funding the project. He declined to name the investor.
Greenpoint would makes its investment back by selling energy to Ansonia and by charging corporations and restaurants to dump their food trash at the site.
Blume said Ansonia would benefit by getting a discounted rate for energy and by saving money on sewage removal costs — which Blume estimated run about $500,000 a year.
Blume said the city could save another $300,000 a year on the discounted energy.
Ansonia plans to lease the land Greenpoint, or whichever company is ultimately chosen, for $1 a year, if the company pays to build and operate the plant.
“Now we have a chance to use part of that waste stream along with food wastes to create renewable energy and turn those liabilities into assets, while becoming a green community,” Blume said Tuesday night at the Board of Aldermen meeting.
Mayor James Della Volpe urged the board to approve the letter of intent.
“We have an opportunity to become one of the most innovative and greenest communities,” Della Volpe said.
Blume said the plant will eventually employ 15 people.
“I think this is the biggest thing to happen to Ansonia. Ever,” Blume said Tuesday. “I can’t think of anything that’s as important as this. Every city in the state will take notice of us now.”
Food Waste Mixture
The plan will use a mixture of human waste and food waste to create the biogas, Blume and Timbrell said.
Many municipalities in the country already use anaerobic digestion to break down sewage waste, and some farmers use it to break down their cow and animal manure, according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.
But only in recent years have municipalities started mixing in food waste, according to the EPA.
The added material is better for creating the biogas, and helps get rid of waste that would otherwise end up on a landfill, Blume said.
And, Greenpoint can charge companies, schools and hospitals to drop off their food trash.
Why is food waste part of the plan?
Restaurants, schools and large companies separate their food trash and pay to have it disposed of at existing landfills, Blume said. Ansonia hopes to charge less to have the companies drop off their food waste at the new plant.
The plan is preliminary. If Greenpoint is chosen as the company, it would still need land use approvals before moving forward with any plans.
