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Neighbors see it, but don't smell it

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: November 11, 2009

BRANDON - The county has expanded its waste-to-energy plant on Falkenburg Road by 50 percent.

But, neighbors still won't smell the tons of garbage that roll into the facility daily on its way to becoming electricity, operators say.
Hillsborough County completed the plant's expansion in September, enabling it to burn and convert about 1,800 tons of household waste every day into electricity that is then sold to Tampa Electric Co.

"Hillsborough County had a heads-up on renewable energy before most," said Joe Treshler, vice president of business development for Covanta, the company that runs the county's waste-to-energy plant.

The county built the plant in 1986. Between then and now, waste-to-energy hit significant snags, including environmental protests over mercury and other pollutants spewing from the stacks.

The plant was retrofitted in the late 1990s with new pollution control devices required by the Environmental Protection Agency.

With an increasing need to conserve landfill space in a growing urban area and the rising cost of fuel, Hillsborough County moved forward with plans to enlarge its plant.

"We hit capacity and started having to divert household garbage to the landfill, so the county made the decision to go ahead and expand," said Tom Smith, environmental manager for the solid waste department.

"And when we had hearings on the expansion," Treshler said, "there was nobody objecting."

The garbage, the fire that converts it to electricity and the pollution the process creates are contained within the plant, Treshler said. The pollution control devices collect metals, acids, gases and other pollutants before the steam generated by turbines reaches the stack and is expelled.

"All odors going in are combusted," Treshler said. And nearly all greenhouse gases created during the process are captured using the pollution control devices, he said.

The expansion gives the plant at least another 20 years of life, Smith said. In turn, converting 3.6 million pounds of garbage a day into electricity adds 35 years to the life of the county landfill.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 627-4763.

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