$250M plant set for Smith Twp. to make clean energy from trash

By SHELBY SCHROEDER

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

SMITH — A company looking to make clean energy from trash has been given the green light from township trustees.

Valas Winters, a Smith Township trustee, said he and the two other trustees, David Mannion and Jerry Ritchie, along with the majority of residents who attended the trustees’ meeting earlier last week, approved plans to develop a $250 million power plant near the site of TransLoad America’s Central Waste landfill, at 12003 Oyster Road.

The plant, a project by Jefferson Renewable Energy, would bring in waste from a New Jersey landfill to the township. Once there, the waste will be sorted to remove recyclable metals and materials unfit for incineration. Then the selected waste will be incinerated to create approximately 65 megawatts of electricity a day — enough to power 50,000 homes.

About 1.5 of those megawatts would run the plant. The rest of the power would be redirected to other areas using the township’s power grid.

Winters lauded the idea as “a benefit to the township,” as it would provide more than 200 construction jobs and 60 full-time positions for its operation. Additional benefits include revenue from taxes and “tipping” fees, he said.

Gregory Benik, president and CEO of the company, expects nearly 3,000 tons of waste to be processed daily. For each ton of waste shipped in from out of state, Smith Township earns 25 cents in tipping fees. That amounts to about $750 that the township could earn each day.

Benik also assured residents that operation of the power plant would have little to no pollution and no foul odors or environmental hazards.

He said waste would be shipped in closed containers and opened inside the facilities, eliminating the possibility that scents would be carried in the air while the trash is sorted.

As for pollution, Benik said plans submitted to Ohio Environmental Protection Agency show chemical output from the plant’s single smoke stack to be a small percentage of the allowed amount. Those percentages vary by chemical, but Benik said each was well below the maximum legal amount. He added that ground and water pollution would be avoided by using a septic tank and water reclamation facility on site.

Benik said the waste unfit for creating energy would be placed into the adjacent landfill.

Garbage from the Central Waste landfill would not be used to create energy. Rather, all waste would be shipped in from out of state.

The waste determined to be useless for creating power — approximately 10 percent of the waste shipped in — will be placed in the Central Waste landfill.

The company is filing paperwork to approve the plan, a lengthy process that Benik hopes to have completed by mid-year of 2009. Construction is estimated to take between 18 and 24 months after approval is obtained.

sschroeder@vindy.com