About the Blog:

Guelph Politico is locally sourced and dedicated to covering the political and cultural scene in the City of Guelph. Est. 2008.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Organics Plant 2.0 Nearing Launch

It seems that the city is about get going on the organic waste plant again, or at least there's a plan in the works according to this press release. The topic of the organic plant came up over the holidays at a Christmas Party, an acquaintance of mine works for one of the companies that developed one of the technologies used in the plant, and they said that it takes some time to calibrate the technology to get it to perfect working order; it's not just a matter of flipping a switch. I have no first knowledge of how bad the smell is, but I do sometimes wonder how much of it is people in the area, against the plant, looking for a problem.
Check the press release below:
GUELPH, ON, Friday, January 20 – The City of Guelph has started to reintroduce organic waste at its organic waste facility.
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment issued an order yesterday allowing the City to add up to 75 tons of organic waste to maintain the minimum temperature required for the facility’s biofilter to operate as designed.
“The temperature inside the facility dropped substantially over the past several days,” said Janet Laird, Executive Director of Planning Building Engineering and Environment. “We needed to bring in a couple days’ worth of fresh organic material to keep up the bacterial activity inside the biofilter.”
Maple Reinders is also working to implement all recommendations of the organic waste action plan to resume all operations at the facility.
“Full-scale operations at the facility could resume by late spring,” added Laird. “The recommissioning schedule will be finalized in consultation with the Ministry of the Environment.”
About the organic waste action plan
The City stopped receiving organic waste last November upon receiving complaints from nearby residents of odours they believed were coming from the facility. The City asked the facility’s builder, Maple Reinders, to develop an action plan to address odours.
Using input from the citizens’ advisory committee, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and an independent consultant hired by the City, Dillon Consulting, Maple Reinders refined the action plan. The committee voted to accept the action plan on January 12 and Maple Reinders - in consultation with the Ministry, the City and the committee – is working to implement all its recommendations.
View the action plan and the accompanying recommissioning plan here.

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