 Public Policy Center
Audio/Video
Transforming an Environmental Liability into an Energy Asset
(3 minutes: 11 seconds)
WMV
Audio/Video Script:
[Narrator] Municipal Waste Landfills are a fact of life. According to the Environmental
Protection Agency, every American produces, on average, 4.6 pounds of garbage
every day. The gases produced by these landfills are undesirable for many
reasons. [Picture of a landfill]
[Suzanne Hirrel, Cooperative Extension Service] When garbage decomposes, it produces methane and carbon dioxide. Both methane
and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases which are linked to global warming and
climate change. Methane is a very potent gas. It remains in the atmosphere
between nine and 15 years. Research has shown that it is about 21 times more
powerful at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Methane is a component of natural gas and we’re seeing an increasing move by
landfills to convert this potential harmful gas into a source of energy. [Video
of landfill gas tanks and monitoring]
[Narrator] In Pulaski County, Two Pine landfill is doing just that. Its
state-of-the-art gas conversion plant provides electricity to more than
forty-five hundred homes in North Little Rock. [Video of men checking gauges and
instruments in a gas conversion plant.]
[David Conrad, Waste Management] The Two Pine landfill is one of a hundred landfills across the country that
captures landfill gas and generates electricity with it. This is the only plant
of its kind in Arkansas, so Waste Management is very proud of that distinction.
[Narrator] Landfill gas to energy recovery is regarded as one of the more
successful examples of renewable energy technologies. While Two Pine is the only
one in the state that generates energy from landfill gas, there are several
other municipal landfills that are exploring renewable energy alternatives.
[Video of a landfill with land fill gas recovery pipes.]
[David Conrad, Waste Management] We are excited about the existing plant and its ability to generate 4.8
megawatts of power. [Picture of the generator plant machinery] We expect that to generate power for 30 years. In this past
April, we were issued just a new permit for an expansion at Two Pine for a new
landfill, which will be about a hundred and forty four acres. The existing
landfill as I said earlier is 86 acres. The new landfill would be bigger and we
expect to put in a similar, if not larger plant to generate more electricity off
of the site. [Map showing the Two Pine Landfill development plans.]
[Narrator] In the meantime, the original plant will continue to supply electricity to
thousands of home for many years to come. [Picture of a neighborhood street.]
This has been a joint production of the Arkansas Energy Office, the
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Public Policy Center and the
Cooperative Extension Service.
To learn more about sustainable, cutting-edge and renewable energy
alternatives in Arkansas, go to
www.arkansasenergy.org or
ppc.uaex.edu.
Back to Energizing Arkansas
|
