Proposed Compost Facility Pitting Green vs. Green

It's the biggest environmental debate in Palo Alto: what to do with the 126-acre Palo Alto landfill slated to close in 2012.

In a battle pitting Green vs. Green, conservationists are vying to keep the site as dedicated Byxbee Park parkland, but green energy advocates want to create an anaerobic digestion facility, which would compost the city's organic waste, creating clean energy for Palo Alto homes.

Members of the Palo Alto Green Energy Initiative (PAGEI), which fronts the project, said the new facility will save money in the long run, provide green energy to power 1,000 homes per year and decrease the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 20,000 tons a year.

"Every city in the Bay Area has goals, including Palo Alto—to recycle as much as possible, to develop green energy generation and to reduce carbon emission," said Hilary Gans, a proponent for the project. "This project single-handedly accomplishes all of those."

Opponents of the proposed facility say, however, that it will be too expensive, emit too much pollution and, according to conservationist Emily Renzel, "truncate what was supposed to be a smooth curve on the park design."

Renzel said, "We'll end up with some sort of strange hybrid, which is not going to look like a park at all."

Members of the PAGEI are gathering signatures to get the measure on the ballot for an election in November.

The compost facility works through a process known as anaerobic digestion. "The goal is to convert organic materials to energy and compost," said Gans. The energy produced from anaerobic digestion is produced by burning the methane gas harvested from that compost.

A mass of organic material—like yard and food waste, which the facility would handle—can either compost in the presence of oxygen or ferment in the absence of oxygen. "The analogy would be the difference between turning grape juice into wine or vinegar," said Gans, a manager at South Bayside Waste Management Authority.

Once in the anaerobic digestor, liquid is introduced into the material to aid in the composting process. After 30 days, the methane gas is extracted, the material is extracted, and a new batch is loaded.

That end product, methane gas, has a variety of beneficial uses, according to Gans.

"The gas extracted from the digestion process has dual value," said Gans. "It can be used to burn to provide heat or to create electricity using an engine." Another proposed use of the harvested methane gas is to power a fleet of new electric cars in Palo Alto.

Former Palo Alto Mayor Peter Drekmeier, a proponent of the project, said that the primary value of the proposed facility would be powering 1,400 homes in the city every year.

Gans described the facility as a completely enclosed warehouse-type building, within which materials are moved using wheel loaders. PAGEI, which proposed the project, said the warehouse would be covered by a sloping green living roof, surrounded by trees, so as to disguise the facility from the rest of the dedicated parkland.

The wastewater treatment plant that is on the site would remain behind the new facility (see artist's rendition).

Funding the proposed facility remains a matter of contention, however.

"The costs would be significant, of course," said Renzel. "The proponents are using some questionable data. The $14 million capital cost does not include preparing the asphalt, the cost of heavy equipment, rent or a green roof."

Though proponents say a facility like this would save the city $1 million per year in energy costs, Renzel said it's not enough and is concerned about where the initial funding would come from.

"The likely funding sources are the City's Refuse Fund and Utilities Fund," said Drekmeier. "Utilities has something called the Calaveras Fund, which is about $30 million that can be used for electricity projects." About a third of the funding for the feasibility study came from the Calaveras Fund. Results of the study will come out in January.

This November, if voters decide to switch elections to even-numbered years, PAGEI will have to request a special election in 2011 to allow voters to decide on the future of the proposed facility.

"It's an attractive option," said Gans of the digestor, "because of the energy found in the product and the interest of a community to handle its own waste and not export those problems to another community."