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Waste gas to fuel art center, greenhouses at former dump
By Derek Hodges
County officials have enlisted the services of Altamont Environmental Inc. to begin the transformation of the old landfill at Dillsboro into a tourist and commerce area.
Work is in the beginning stages to capture gases at the site for the purpose of powering an arts and crafts center, as well as several greenhouses.
County officials call the center a creative solution to a dirty problem.
In early 2003, monitoring sites around the fill found levels of methane in the air exceeding Department of Environment and Natural Resources' limits.
County Manager Ken Westmoreland suggested a center modeled after EnergyXchange, a facility in Burnsville that uses methane from the Yancey-Mitchell Landfill to power several craft and horticultural facilities.
The facility will cost about $1.25 million, virtually the same as the projected expense to install equipment to burn the gas, which was another solution suggested by DENR, Westmoreland said.
Most of the money needed to complete the project will be provided by grants from outside sources. One such agency, the Golden Leaf Foundation, has provided 60-70 percent of the money needed, Westmoreland said. The county also has applied to the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for monies to support the construction of the facilities.
Dillsboro and county officials hope the center will bring more business into the area, Westmoreland said.
"The center at Yancey-Mitchell is kind of away from town," he said. "I think our center, since it's going to be located just off several main roads and will be there in town, will do really well. It's a matter of signage and marketing."
In addition to the economic benefits, there will also be ecological good from the center, Westmoreland said.
The methane escaping from the landfill is harmful to the environment and burning it would release greenhouse gases into the air, said Jason Zink, an engineer with Altamont.
The current plan would eliminate those harmful gases by containing them, Zink said.
For the craft center, the county will utilize the Webster Enterprises building adjacent to the landfill it acquired in 2003.
The building will house a glass-blowing furnace and a pottery kiln. There will also be separate work spaces for individual artisans and a display and sales area, Westmoreland said.
The covered part of the recycling center will become greenhouse space. At the Yancey-Mitchell facility, popular native plants are grown for sale, and Westmoreland said the county will likely do the same at the Dillsboro facility.
Currently there are three completed methane wells at the facility. They were installed, along with a monitoring facility and a catch basin for liquids in the lines, as a test.
When everything ran as expected on the test wells, the project was given the go-ahead by county leaders. Crews are now working to install six more wells, Zink said.
Heavy equipment is needed to drill the 40- to 90-foot-deep wells through the trash and about five feet of covering dirt. Perforated plastic pipe is then placed in the well, which is capped and connected to a pipeline to transfer the gas.
The holes in the pipe allow the methane in, and a pump brings the gas to the burner.
County officials are pleased with the way the project is progressing, Westmoreland said.
"We feel pretty positive about it," he said.
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