Gas-trapped
SOME TWO years in the making, the Biosphere waste-to-energy facility in Barangay Lara, City of San Fernando has started operating.
So crowed the Honorable Reden Halili, city council environment committee chair, presenting to Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez green energy pellets supposed to have been produced at the facility.
“We observed the production of the green pellets during the dry run…We are hopeful that by March 1 this year, we will dump garbage there and not in Kalangitan,” Halili said.
(But the city’s been dumping its waste there, not in Kalangitan, Your Honor. The procession of overloaded garbage trucks from San Fernando’s barangays is a morning ritual at the megadike. To be doubly sure, I will have to check with Sonny Dobles, chair of the environmental desk of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon. He has a list of all LGUs accessing Kalangitan for their garbage.)
Anyways, Halili also said that once all pieces of equipment of the Biosphere facility are put in place and it becomes operational next month, it can already generate electricity for the city and nearby towns.
Rodriguez welcomed the move and said the facility would be a big relief in solid waste management for the city and other municipalities.
So we read in Sun-Star Pampanga over the week-end. Which got me hitting the daily’s archives for earlier stories on the Biosphere project, and bingo! One dated August 11, 2011 reads:
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- After about a year and a half in the making, this city's waste to gasification program may see light as Mayor Oscar Rodriguez confirmed that all equipment needed to run the Biosphere facility have been completed.
Rodriguez said during his State of the City Address that he received a call from an official of Bluesteel, proponent of the ballyhooed multimillion waste to energy project, that the needed equipment have arrived in Manila.
The project has been taken much "off the books," after Rodriguez and City Administrator Ferdinand Caylao opined they have been "taken for a ride" by proponents of the project. Capitol has a similar project being undertaken with the McKay Group of Germany.
"I just received a call from our proponents and I was told the equipment needed to run it is Manila. Let's hope for the best we could work this out for the sake of the province," said Rodriguez.
The multi-million Biosphere project, which Rodriguez and City Administrator Ferdinand Caylao earlier dismissed as "just a ride," will now complement Capitol's moves on adverse solid waste management.
Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office chief Art Punsalan said: "If that materializes, then we could get a breath of fresh air on our garbage woes. If San Fernando's Biosphere could churn out 600 tons per day into power and Capitol's McKay program an additional 700 tons, we could very well be addressing our solid waste management problems."
Punsalan added that Capitol's waste-to energy project will start late this year, as soon as required documents are complied with.
From Biosphere, we segue now to the Capitol’s “McKay program” that the PENRO talked about.
On September 14, 2011, Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda and Lubao Mayor Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab signed a memorandum of agreement with James Mackay, chairman of the Pampanga Green Management Inc. (PGMI) and the MacKay Green Energy Inc. for the establishment of a US$63-million facility that will convert the province’s garbage into electricity.
Per the MOA, the facility will not entail any cash-out from the provincial government while the Lubao municipality will provide the site for it at its central materials recovery facility in Barangay Sta. Catalina.
The facility is expected to be completed within four months from the signing of the agreement.
Mat Evans of MacKay Green Energy Inc. explained that through a process dubbed as “treating metropolitan solid waste and using the refuse derived fiber to produce renewable energy,” 800 metric tons of garbage a day will go through combustion to generate 22 megawatts of electricity, enough to energize 110,000 households at the rate of one megawatt for every 5,000 households.
“With combustion at 1,200 to 1,800 degrees centigrade, the facility produces no toxic gases,” Evans stressed. “With our system, there will be no longer any need for landfills. With our facility you can be guaranteed to be safe from any leachate, which is very hazardous. Methane issues will no longer be a problem.”
That was the last thing we heard of the MacKay program.
Almost five months have passed since the MOA signing, and no facility stands at the Lubao MRF site.
Could it be that the Capitol and the municipality of Lubao took heed of the warnings aired by Greenpeace activist Von Hernandez at the time of the MOA signing?
Said Hernandez: “The Clean Air Act of 1999 explicitly prohibits the incineration of municipal waste, and the proponent (MacKay) is using clever semantic subterfuge (i.e. characterizing their technology as gasification, pyrolisis, or plasma airs) to try to exempt their proposed facility from the ban.
“They will claim that their technology is state of the art and without emissions. I find such spectacular claims hard to believe. While there may be state of the art incinerators, there is no such thing as a pollution-free incinerator.
“The combustion of waste especially chlorine containing materials like plastics creates cancer-causing dioxins and furans, liberates heavy metals into the air, essentially converting a waste problem into a formidable toxics pollution problem which will threaten the communities around the proposed facility.”
Concluded Hernandez: “The Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and the Pampanga provincial government should be cautious and not fall into this trap. Under the Clean Air Act, the public can take them to court for sabotaging and violating the provisions of the law.”
As San Fernando’s Biosphere facility is similar to MacKay’s, then the gas-trapped city has one hell of an environmental situation in its hands.
That is if Hernandez – the 2003 Goldman Environmental awardee, 2007 Time Hero of the Environment, member of the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, an international anti-incineration coalition promoting zero waste, and the executive director (on leave) of Greenpeace Southeast Asia – is right.
Yeah, I really need to consult Mr. Dobles on this.
So crowed the Honorable Reden Halili, city council environment committee chair, presenting to Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez green energy pellets supposed to have been produced at the facility.
“We observed the production of the green pellets during the dry run…We are hopeful that by March 1 this year, we will dump garbage there and not in Kalangitan,” Halili said.
(But the city’s been dumping its waste there, not in Kalangitan, Your Honor. The procession of overloaded garbage trucks from San Fernando’s barangays is a morning ritual at the megadike. To be doubly sure, I will have to check with Sonny Dobles, chair of the environmental desk of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon. He has a list of all LGUs accessing Kalangitan for their garbage.)
Anyways, Halili also said that once all pieces of equipment of the Biosphere facility are put in place and it becomes operational next month, it can already generate electricity for the city and nearby towns.
Rodriguez welcomed the move and said the facility would be a big relief in solid waste management for the city and other municipalities.
So we read in Sun-Star Pampanga over the week-end. Which got me hitting the daily’s archives for earlier stories on the Biosphere project, and bingo! One dated August 11, 2011 reads:
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- After about a year and a half in the making, this city's waste to gasification program may see light as Mayor Oscar Rodriguez confirmed that all equipment needed to run the Biosphere facility have been completed.
Rodriguez said during his State of the City Address that he received a call from an official of Bluesteel, proponent of the ballyhooed multimillion waste to energy project, that the needed equipment have arrived in Manila.
The project has been taken much "off the books," after Rodriguez and City Administrator Ferdinand Caylao opined they have been "taken for a ride" by proponents of the project. Capitol has a similar project being undertaken with the McKay Group of Germany.
"I just received a call from our proponents and I was told the equipment needed to run it is Manila. Let's hope for the best we could work this out for the sake of the province," said Rodriguez.
The multi-million Biosphere project, which Rodriguez and City Administrator Ferdinand Caylao earlier dismissed as "just a ride," will now complement Capitol's moves on adverse solid waste management.
Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office chief Art Punsalan said: "If that materializes, then we could get a breath of fresh air on our garbage woes. If San Fernando's Biosphere could churn out 600 tons per day into power and Capitol's McKay program an additional 700 tons, we could very well be addressing our solid waste management problems."
Punsalan added that Capitol's waste-to energy project will start late this year, as soon as required documents are complied with.
From Biosphere, we segue now to the Capitol’s “McKay program” that the PENRO talked about.
On September 14, 2011, Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda and Lubao Mayor Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab signed a memorandum of agreement with James Mackay, chairman of the Pampanga Green Management Inc. (PGMI) and the MacKay Green Energy Inc. for the establishment of a US$63-million facility that will convert the province’s garbage into electricity.
Per the MOA, the facility will not entail any cash-out from the provincial government while the Lubao municipality will provide the site for it at its central materials recovery facility in Barangay Sta. Catalina.
The facility is expected to be completed within four months from the signing of the agreement.
Mat Evans of MacKay Green Energy Inc. explained that through a process dubbed as “treating metropolitan solid waste and using the refuse derived fiber to produce renewable energy,” 800 metric tons of garbage a day will go through combustion to generate 22 megawatts of electricity, enough to energize 110,000 households at the rate of one megawatt for every 5,000 households.
“With combustion at 1,200 to 1,800 degrees centigrade, the facility produces no toxic gases,” Evans stressed. “With our system, there will be no longer any need for landfills. With our facility you can be guaranteed to be safe from any leachate, which is very hazardous. Methane issues will no longer be a problem.”
That was the last thing we heard of the MacKay program.
Almost five months have passed since the MOA signing, and no facility stands at the Lubao MRF site.
Could it be that the Capitol and the municipality of Lubao took heed of the warnings aired by Greenpeace activist Von Hernandez at the time of the MOA signing?
Said Hernandez: “The Clean Air Act of 1999 explicitly prohibits the incineration of municipal waste, and the proponent (MacKay) is using clever semantic subterfuge (i.e. characterizing their technology as gasification, pyrolisis, or plasma airs) to try to exempt their proposed facility from the ban.
“They will claim that their technology is state of the art and without emissions. I find such spectacular claims hard to believe. While there may be state of the art incinerators, there is no such thing as a pollution-free incinerator.
“The combustion of waste especially chlorine containing materials like plastics creates cancer-causing dioxins and furans, liberates heavy metals into the air, essentially converting a waste problem into a formidable toxics pollution problem which will threaten the communities around the proposed facility.”
Concluded Hernandez: “The Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and the Pampanga provincial government should be cautious and not fall into this trap. Under the Clean Air Act, the public can take them to court for sabotaging and violating the provisions of the law.”
As San Fernando’s Biosphere facility is similar to MacKay’s, then the gas-trapped city has one hell of an environmental situation in its hands.
That is if Hernandez – the 2003 Goldman Environmental awardee, 2007 Time Hero of the Environment, member of the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, an international anti-incineration coalition promoting zero waste, and the executive director (on leave) of Greenpeace Southeast Asia – is right.
Yeah, I really need to consult Mr. Dobles on this.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 6:17 PM
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