Here’s the scoop on our green energy plans, and how you can help
We’re making our way to cleaner energy. This year, you can help us get there.
For some time, WLSSD has been working on plans to make our own electricity. After cleaning water and removing the solids, we use a two-step biological process to turn solids into fertilizer, and a second step makes a methane-rich gas called biogas.
Biogas is a lot like natural gas and we burn it to heat our buildings and some of our treatment processes. We don’t use all the gas, however, and would like to install generators to make electricity.
Right off the bat, we could make about 50 percent of the electricity we need to run our treatment plant. If we add more wastes like food scraps or similar food for our digesters (that’s where we make fertilizer and biogas), we could generate more. (See our 1.5 minute video that explains the process: https://vimeo.com/140094130).
To us, it’s a great way to serve all of our customers. We’re keeping the environment cleaner because we’re using renewable energy. And, we have control over our electricity costs, meaning your wastewater rates won’t go up because of skyrocketing electricity costs.
That means we’ll take something everybody used to think of as waste (we even called it sewage or wastewater), and turn it into clean energy. We think it’s cool. We hope you do, too.
We need some help, though. We’ve asked the state for bonding money and hope the legislature and the governor agree. And this year, the governor’s office wants your input and has put together an easy-to-use computer form to provide input. You can find us (and any other project you support) at the link below. Hurry! The link is only open until November 30!