For the greener good of the valley, an incoming federal grant will support a local energy from waste project and narrow down the candidate list for a facility site.
On Friday (June 23), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Funding (GMF) granted $173,250 to the Southern Alberta Energy from Waste Association’s (SAEWA) Energy from Waste Project.
SAEWA, made up of 56 municipalities and nine waste management jurisdictions in southern Alberta, is in the final planning stages of developing a facility that will convert municipal solid waste into energy.
The total project value for SAEWA’s feasibility study is $346,500 and focuses on transportation and logistical impacts of potential facility sites.
“We are growing Canada’s economy through investments in green infrastructure, clean technologies and lower-carbon transportation options,” stated the Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, in a release.
“These innovative and targeted GMF initiatives show these investments in action, solving some of today’s biggest environmental challenges while helping us to meet our domestic climate goals and international commitments.”
In total, $72 million for 48 capital projects, pilot projects and feasibility studies were announced that address climate change challenges throughout the nation.
Bow Valley municipalities under the SAEWA umbrella include the towns of Banff and Canmore and Municipal District of Bighorn.
As an alternative to landfill expansion, such as at the Francis Cookie Class III site east of Exshaw, the energy from waste facility would provide stakeholders with significant social, environmental and economic benefits, according to SAEWA.
SAEWA estimates its members can obtain more than a 70 per cent waste diversion rate from landfill.
Currently, trucks carrying solid waste garbage from Banff, Banff National Park, and Canmore travel about an 800-kilometre round trip to the West Dried Meat Lake Landfill near Camrose.
Trucks carrying MD garbage currently travel about a 200-km round trip to drop garbage off at a Calgary landfill.
Developing a new energy from waste facility – which has six potential, but unnamed site locations – would cut back emissions and kilometres travelled as one benefit, said Paul Ryan, SAEWA vice-chair and Municipal District of Bighorn councillor.
“The real conundrum is we have a bunch of municipalities with that waste, and if it doesn’t go to an energy from waste facility, it has to go somewhere … we don’t want to build another landfill,” said Ryan. “The study will work on determining environmental benefits over that of a landfill.”
Part of the green objective of the study is to “provide estimates of the environmental benefits of the facility in terms of reductions to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Criteria Air Containments (CAC).”
SAEWA has also envisioned a potential customer base for the sale of renewable energy, which included existing energy users, or using the facility to attract future industrial and commercial local development.
Ryan was happy to receive federal support, but disappointed with the lack thereof from the provincial government, stating attempts to set up meetings went unanswered.
