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County landfill is area’s biggest climate polluter

By  Spencer Hunt The Columbus Dispatch Sunday February 5, 2012 11:21 PM

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The Franklin County landfill leaked 11,900 tons of methane in 2010, making it the top industrial source of climate-change gases in central Ohio, according to a first-ever federal inventory.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the landfill and 19 other businesses and entities across central Ohio emitted a total of 1.45 million tons of carbon dioxide, a climate-change gas. Methane is 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, so the EPA describes the Franklin County landfill as emitting 262,582 tons of “carbon-dioxide equivalents.”
Polluters in Columbus include Ohio State University, which released 174,315 tons of carbon dioxide, and the Anheuser-Busch brewery on the North Side, which emitted 54,392 tons.
However, central Ohio’s contribution to climate change is nothing compared with the damage caused by large coal-fired power plants. American Electric Power’s Gavin plant in Gallia County is the No. 1 polluter in Ohio, having emitted 16.74 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2010.
The EPA’s new greenhouse-gas inventory shows that operations across Ohio might face federal climate-change limits — if they are ever enacted. With 244 sources reporting a total of 175.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, Ohio ranks third in the nation for pollution, behind Texas and Indiana.
To cut down on such pollution, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio plans to drill 20 wells into the Franklin County landfill this year to funnel more methane to flares that burn off the gas. There are 137 wells now, said Jodi Andes, a waste authority spokeswoman.
Officials also plan to start siphoning off methane this year to sell as fuel for cars that run on compressed natural gas, she said. “You’re taking a waste and creating economic development.”
At the Pine Grove landfill near Amanda in Fairfield County, Republic Services started drilling methane-collection wells last year and might burn the gas to generate electricity. The landfill is the area’s No. 2 source of climate-change gas, emitting 224,164 tons of carbon-dioxide equivalents in 2010.
Scott Potter, Ohio State’s senior energy adviser, said the university cut its carbon footprint in 2006 when it switched from burning coal to natural gas to heat campus buildings.
“ We essentially dropped our campuswide emissions 60 to 70 percent,” Potter said.
Methane is a primary component of natural gas and produces carbon dioxide whether it’s burned to heat buildings or destroyed in a landfill flare, but burning it creates less pollution in the eyes of government officials.
Landfills don’t report carbon dioxide produced from flares, because the EPA deems it no different from the amount of carbon dioxide that would naturally rise from decomposing organic matter in soil. Ohio State has to report it because it is produced by an industrial process to create heat.
The closing of some power plants will help reduce Ohio’s carbon-dioxide output, but that’s not the reason for the shutdowns.
Recently enacted limits on mercury and other toxic compounds have made the Picway power plant in Pickaway County too expensive to run, said Melissa McHenry, an AEP spokeswoman. It will shut down in 2014.
Akron-based FirstEnergy cited similar reasons for plans to close four plants along Lake Erie by September.
Picway emitted 88,426 tons of carbon dioxide in 2010. The FirstEnergy plants released a total of 12.8 million tons.
No federal regulations or laws place limits on carbon dioxide, methane or other climate-change gases. Efforts to pass limits have stalled in Congress for years. “There is a great deal of disagreement in the public and certainly among politicians as to whether we actually have a problem,” said Nolan Moser of the Ohio Environmental Council, which supports limits.
Industry groups say limits will hurt efforts to grow and support businesses.
“ Given that the economy is slowly beginning to show signs of recovery, any additional regulations to businesses would in turn cost those business,” said Charlotte Hickcox, environmental policy director for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
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