Fitchburg holds town hall meeting to discuss options.
The city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, will held a public hearing on March 31, 2015, to discuss the possible repurposing of the city’s Westerly Wastewater Treatment facility into an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility. The wastewater treatment facility is one of two treatment plants that the city operates. However, the facility no longer treats wastewater or discharges treated effluent.
The discussion on whether or not to build an AD facility at the site began in May 2013, when the city entered into an engineering services agreement with Weston & Sampson Engineers (W&S), which was contracted to prepare an “Anaerobic Digestion Feasibility Study” to address the recent Massachusetts Organics Disposal Ban.
The city received a grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to help fund the study.
The original scope of study included the development of an anaerobic digestion project that would generate biogas from the treatment facility residuals and source-separated organics (SSO) from within the area.
As the study progressed, city officials determined that the feedstock materials identified in the project would not be enough to generate sufficient biogas in the anaerobic digestion process. As a result, the study scope changed to accommodate regional municipal wastewater sludge residuals and paper mill sludge residuals for the proposed 1.5 megawatt-hour–rated power generation facility.
Jeffrey Murawski, Fitchburg Department of Public Works’ deputy commissioner of wastewater, says while the city’s sludge residuals are currently landfilled at the Fitchburg sanitary landfill, the landfill could reach capacity by 2025.
Several public meetings were held to review the scope and goals of the project and to obtain public input. The scope of the preliminary study, including proposed organic substrates, was discussed in detail at each of these meetings.
W&S found, through discussions with solid waste contractors, there was a need for a regional facility in Central Massachusetts to process wastewater treatment residuals as well as SSO substrates. The engineering firm also found that there is a large source of organic solids at Newark Paper, a nearby paper mill. With these added organic substrates, a project could be developed at the site to support a 1.5 MWh–rated power generation facility.
Additional grant funding was secured to allow for the study to be revised to include regional wastewater treatment residuals and paper mill residuals. W&S issued a Technical Memorandum on Feb. 13, 2015, which finds that the revised project, including the supplemental substrates, would be economically feasible.
Because of these changes, the city has planned a community forum meeting set for March 31 to discuss the study’s change of scope, present the preliminary findings and solicit feedback from the public.
The city’s project team also says it will request an opportunity to address the City Council, Planning Board, Energy Commission and Water/Wastewater Commission upon release of the draft Feasibility Study, and will be available to answer questions upon request.
The meeting will be held on the campus of Fitchburg State University, March 31, from 6-7:30 pm.