At first glance, a plan to turn municipal garbage, sewage solids and waste wood into marketable compost, while saving money for the community, sounds about as likely as Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold, but for the Resort Municipality of Whistler, British Columbia, Carney's Waste Systems and lifting partner Konecranes, this scenario is no fairy tale. Rather, it's a chapter in the ongoing story of how one forward-thinking mountain resort pursued its vision to create environmental sustainability by 2020.
Known for its stunning natural beauty, the Pacific Northwest has long been an environmentally progressive region. So when Carney's Waste Systems launched the composting pilot project in Squamish, British Columbia in 2003, a local industrial park welcomed the unique solution to the waste disposal needs of Squamish and neighboring towns of Whistler and Pemberton. As new big-box retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart purchased adjacent tracts for development, odor from the facility became an issue.
The composting process was not the problem. The garbage-to-gold recipe implemented by Owen Carney was actually very simple. A specific mixture of wood chips, food waste and sewage solids was assembled, mixed and delivered into a temperature-controlled, aerated, enclosed tunnel for a minimum of 14 days, emerging at the other end as odorless compost. After 60-90 days of aging to complete the wood breakdown, screening to remove debris, and dilution with sand or peat moss, the end product was a premium, Class A landscape-ready product that could be sold for unrestricted use to landscapers and the public. City fathers agreed that the process worked, but it was no longer working for Squamish.
Enter the Resort Municipality of Whistler, a community whose Whistler2020 vision for environmental sustainability is one of the most aggressive in North America. Whistler's 14,000 permanent residents annually welcome around 2 million guests for winter and summer sports, and the options for nearby waste disposal are limited. A plentiful bear population and terrain limitations rule out a landfill. And since the only other alternative involved exporting its garbage to Robanco Landfill in Washington state, Whistler committed to build a new $14 million regional composting facility, to be operated by Carney's Waste. But all parties agreed the material handling methods for the facility would need to evolve.
Whistler's planning group, which included Mayor Ken Melamed, Environmental Operations Manager Ron Sander and CWA Engineers out of Vancouver, set to work to determine the most sustainable way to process biosolids, while reducing the carbon footprint and eliminating the odor problem.
According to Ron Sander, the front-end loaders used in Squamish were a major issue.
"I'm not a big believer in burning fossil fuels when we don't have to," Sander said, "and front-end loaders burn a lot of fossil fuel. They also make a mess, with exhaust darkening the inside of the building, and they tend to track biosolid residue all over the site, creating a very dirty environment. Material would leave the building and get into the wood waste and organics, which was a problem."
A conscious decision was made to replace fossil fuel with electricity throughout the facility wherever possible. CWA Engineers also made the decision to specify a crane rather than front loaders to move and assemble the three primary ingredients for compost. According to Sander, their crane criteria included carrying capacity, reliability and meeting all the hard engineering goalposts they had developed. They wanted the best possible reliability, proven technology and the ability to call in local service contacts in case something went wrong. Mark Laughlin, Konecranes Regional Sales manager for Process Cranes, Western U. S. and Western Canada fielded their request.
"This is not one of the largest projects we've worked on," Laughlin said, "but it's certainly one of the more interesting. We recommended a 5 metric ton bucket crane that operates on an 18-meter span with a 2.5 cubic meter hydraulic grab. The crane is radio controlled, and equipped with Konecranes DynAPilot anti-sway load control software. It's a CMAA Class D crane for process duty, and is set up for future automation if needed. Currently, however, the thinking is that having a human running the process allows them to tweak the mixture as needed to allow for temperature conditions and also pick out any unwanted items to maintain quality control in the compost. It's a recipe that needs a human touch."
|
Go to Page
1 2 3
|
 |
