COUNTY FINDS NEW ECONOMIC POWER AT OLD LANDFILL

In Business, May-June, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 3, p. 21

Newly-created EnergyXchange uses recovered gas to power two glass furnaces and a pottery kiln plus providing heat to greenhouses, visitors center and craft gallery.

Laura K. Moorefield

BACK in 1999, citizens, county officials, and community economic developers from two North Carolina communities came together to address the potential problem of landfill gas. They discovered that their old landfill, a former mica mine, could provide yet another resource to their communities - renewable energy.
If you've never visited a landfill, the small, closed landfill that once served the rural mountain counties of Yancey and Mitchell in western North Carolina would be a good place to start. And chances are you wouldn't be the only visitor there. In 2005 alone, an estimated 5,000 people visited this landfill. The reason - an innovative landfill gas-to-energy project called the EnergyXchange.
The EnergyXchange is a (501)(c) (3) nonprofit organization strategically situated across the road from the closed Yancey/Mitchell landfill. Established in 1999, the organization's stated mission is “to demonstrate the responsible use of landfill gas as an energy source for small enterprise in craft and horticulture, and to meet local energy needs.” Today, the EnergyXchange uses landfill gas to fuel two glass furnaces and a pottery kiln, and to provide heat to four greenhouses, a visitors center, and a craft gallery.
On a recent visit, I joined a line of dump trucks as we drove together up a twisting, two-lane road towards the landfill. The dump trucks were headed for the waste transfer station and the still-operational construction & demolition landfill. I drove around the scales and continued up a gravel road. To my right was a spring green field dotted with landfill gas wells. On my left, a small gas flare signaled the entrance to this unique landfill gas-to-energy project.
REGIONAL HISTORY
To appreciate the design of the EnergyXchange, it is necessary to understand a little about the local communities. Craft and agriculture are both vital to this region's economy and identity.
Burley tobacco has long been an important crop for small farmers in this region. However, with recent changes in tobacco legislation, these farmers are looking for other sources of income. And, as with many areas in the U.S., manufacturing jobs are declining as furniture and textile industries move elsewhere.
Traditional crafts like pottery, furniture making, and quilting are also established parts of the regional culture. The highly acclaimed Penland School of Crafts has been cultivating the skills of budding craftspeople just five miles away from the landfill site for more than 70 years. The school attracts world-class faculty and talented students with courses in photography, book-making, furniture, blacksmithing, glassblowing, pottery, jewelry and fabric arts.
Another local tradition is known as digging or wildcrafting. People who obtain permits are allowed to harvest certain plants from the wild and sell them. These mountains are home to several plants that are desirable for medicinal purposes or commercial landscaping, such as azalea, rhododendron, ginseng and galax. While digging has provided income for people here for generations, some species have been over-harvested and are now becoming rare.
Today, tourism based on the region's cultural heritage and natural beauty, along with new populations of artists, retirees, and second homeowners are contributing to a shifting economy.
PROJECT HISTORY
The Yancey/Mitchell landfill, once a mica mine, accepted trash from 1973 until 1994. Although the landfill was tiny by landfill standards - about 360,000 tons of garbage - it produced toxic landfill gas just as larger landfills do.
Since the landfill was so small, it fell well below the federal minimum requirement for landfill gas mitigation equipment. However, county officials were rightfully concerned with potential environmental harm. In 1997, the counties capped the landfill with clay and installed passive vents that would prevent the build-up and underground migration of landfill gas. These vents would do nothing, however, to mitigate the global warming and smog-causing attributes of the landfill gas that was escaping into the atmosphere.
The EnergyXchange is the result of an unusual amount of cooperation between community leaders, interested citizens, and nonprofit organizations. With support from Yancey and Mitchell county officials and the EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), three area nonprofits served as the project's major partners:
The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) Council, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture whose organizational goal is “to encourage the blending of natural resource use with local economic and social values.”
HandMade in America, an Ashe-ville, North Carolina-based nonprofit dedicated to economic development and crafts in western North Carolina.
Mayland Community College, an area community college.
The idea for a landfill gas-to-energy project surfaced after Yancey County Commissioner Leon Taylor returned from a trip to Florida with a newspaper article about a landfill project there. The county was interested, but without resources to pursue a new venture. They approached the Blue Ridge RC&D, headed by Stan Steury.
The Blue Ridge RC&D decided to take on the project. Steury contacted the EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) to advise the counties on their options for using the available landfill gas. Meanwhile, the RC&D organized community meetings with area leaders and invited local residents to participate in the process of envisioning a new use for gas from their old landfill.
Based on the available amount of landfill gas, about 50 standard cubic feet per minute, the task force settled on two applications - heat for greenhouses and fuel for studios as part of a craft business incubator.
According to Steury, at one time, nearly 140 people were participating in different aspects of the project's planning and development. The group decided to form a nonprofit to make legal and monetary aspects easier to manage.
The EnergyXchange nonprofit was incorporated in 1999. The organization raised nearly 1.3 million dollars in grants and donations to get the project up and running. Signs posted around the campus and plaques in the visitors center testify to the importance of the EnergyXchange's many private, state, and federal project partners that helped make their community vision a reality.
CURRENT OPERATIONS
Seven years after its founding, the EnergyXchange continues to operate two successful programs: Project Branch Out and the Craft Studios. The campus consists of four greenhouses, four shade structures, and four simple Quonset huts which house the main office, the visitors center, a gallery, and the glass and ceramic studios. All except the shade structures are heated or fueled by landfill gas.
Project Branch Out
Project Branch Out uses three greenhouses and shade structures to propagate native ornamentals from seed. The program's staff trains local farmers on how to do the same, and also sells young plants to local nurseries. Project Branch Out provides a significant economic service to the surrounding community. Local nursery operators are able to purchase, raise, and sell high quality native ornamentals that have not been harvested in the wild. According to Heather Dawes, EnergyXchange's executive director, “This is a product that's not available anywhere else.”
A fourth greenhouse houses an aquaponics demonstration where nitrogen-rich wastewater from tanks of tilapia fertilize raised beds of basil, kale and lettuce. The plants in turn filter the water so that it can be fed back into the fish tanks. Ten solar hot water panels keep the water in the tilapia tanks warm.
Perhaps the most significant crop of Project Branch Out is the group of student interns. High school and community college horticulture students gain valuable work experience here through paid internships. The EnergyXchange hopes that many of these students will one day operate their own sustainable businesses in this area.
Craft Studios
Three-year residencies are available to selected limited-resource artists in pottery and glassblowing. Resident artists pay low monthly rents for use of the studios, take business development classes at the nearby Mayland Community College, and staff the on-site gallery. In addition, they get the unique experience of working with the world's first landfill gas-fired pottery kilns and glass furnaces. Many of the artists choose to remain in the area after their three-year tenure is completed.
Because the Craft Studios have pioneered the use of landfill gas in pottery and glass craft, the artists have had some minor glitches with their equipment to work out. But judging from the outstanding work for sale in the gallery, the unusual fuel isn't holding anyone back. On average, the glass furnaces continually use about 24 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas. The pottery kiln requires 10-15 cubic feet per minute for its weekly firing.
OUTREACH & TOURISM
According to Steury, “One of the most exciting things about this project is that we're actually attracting tourists to a landfill. Where else do people go on vacation and want to visit a landfill?” Yet the EnergyXchange attracts thousands of visitors each year. Nearly 1,000 people visit per year on organized group tours. An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people will drop in on their own this year. Visitors include curious people passing by on their way to the nearby waste transfer station, people touring the region for crafts, people interested in the horticulture operation, and people visiting the artists. Dawes noted that in her three-month tenure as executive director, the most surprising aspect of the EnergyXchange has been that first-time visitors to western North Carolina put the EnergyXchange on their travel agendas: “Many of these people have landfill issues in their own hometowns. In their search for solutions, they've read about the EnergyXchange.”
Currently there is no charge to drop in visitors who are free to look around and take a self-guided tour. Only recently, the EnergyXchange began collecting a $3.00 fee from members of organized tours. Groups may volunteer in the greenhouse in lieu of a fee.
ECONOMIC IMPACTS
The impacts of this very small landfill gas-to-energy project reach far beyond the campus's borders. The EnergyXchange estimates that during its first six years of operation, it was responsible for the creation of ten new businesses, 27 business expansions, 16 permanent jobs, and 35 student apprenticeships.
Many other landfill gas-to-energy projects are underway in western North Carolina that were inspired by the success of the EnergyXchange. Avery County uses landfill gas in greenhouses. Watauga County is investigating possible uses for their landfill gas, including generating electricity for county-owned buildings and supporting a renewable energy research and demonstration center. Wilkes County will use landfill gas to fuel a fire-fighter training center on their closed landfill and also to power a cold-storage facility to aid local apple growers. The University of North Carolina-Asheville has plans underway to relocate its art department to a closed landfill, thereby creating a renewable energy craft campus. And beginning this June, Jackson County will begin to utilize their closed landfill's gas to fuel a craft center and a biodiesel processor.
Because of growing interest from other communities in having their own versions of the EnergyXchange, the Blue Ridge RC&D has partnered with the Appalachian State University Energy Center, the North Carolina State Energy Office, and the GoldenLEAF Foundation to conduct workshops in other areas of North Carolina that are also transitioning from tobacco-dependent economies. The Community T.I.E.S. (Trash Into Energy Savings) workshop series focuses on landfill gas-to-energy projects as avenues for community and agricultural economic development.
FUTURE PLANS
At one time, the presence of landfill gas presented a challenge to Yancey and Mitchell counties. A challenge further down the road will be the absence of landfill gas. In the 1998 feasibility study conducted by SCS Engineers in conjunction with LMOP, the Yancey/Mitchell landfill was estimated to have approximately 15 years left of useful LFG production. This was a best guess because many unknown and unpredictable variables such as landfill content, moisture content, and temperature can affect the length of time that a landfill will produce gas. However, one day the landfill will stop producing useful amounts of gas, and the EnergyXchange will need new sources of fuel.
The organization wants to remain a renewable energy complex, and is looking into their future options. Firing the ceramics kiln off waste oil, using propane in the glass studio, and using geothermal heat for the greenhouses are ideas under consideration. An anemometer tower on loan from the Appalachian State University Small Wind Initiative is gauging the site's wind speed to determine if a small wind turbine would operate well here. Dawes, a former educator, also plans to develop a field trip packet specifically matched to North Carolina's secondary environmental science curriculum.
The EnergyXchange has served as a demonstration of the potential of a small landfill gas-to-energy project to enhance local communities. While it will continue to do so, its future goals have been expanded to include the demonstration of both environmental and economic sustainability.
In the words of Stan Steury, “There is no cookie-cutter approach to developing a small landfill gas-to-energy project. Not every community will need a glassblowing furnace, a pottery kiln, or a greenhouse.” But therein lies the beauty of community-oriented landfill gas-to-energy projects - each new project provides the opportunity to match the hazardous by-product of a waste stream to local energy needs. Even if a landfill is large enough to support a commercial scale gas-to-energy project, Steury encourages developers to consider setting aside some landfill gas for a community-based project. The diversion of a small amount of gas will have little impact on overall project economics, but the outcome could be priceless.

Laura Moorefield is a freelance writer who focuses on energy and environmental issues. She holds an M.A. in Industrial Technology from Appalachian State University. She has researched, written about, and delivered presentations on small landfill gas-to-energy development potential throughout North Carolina. She currently resides in Durango, Colorado.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.