At their meeting, the New Hanover County commissioners unanimously greenlighted a contract between the county and Archaea Energy that would generate revenues from the county landfill while making it more environmentally friendly. The contract allows Recycling & Solid Waste Department staff to dig wells in the landfill that will trap methane gas. Archaea will build the necessary infrastructure to harvest and process that methane into renewable natural gas for sale to Piedmont Natural Gas, according to Joe Suleyman, director of the Recycling & Solid Waste Department.
Suleyman told the commissioners he was “really excited” about bringing the contract for their approval. “This represents probably the pinnacle of my 25-year career in solid waste,” he told the board. “We’re taking a liability, which is our landfill gas that is composed primarily of methane, and we’re monetizing it – without spending a single penny.”
The project would not have been possible 10 or 15 years ago when most waste in the landfill was inert incinerator ash, which does not generate much methane as it decomposes, Suleyman explained. With the closure of the county incinerator, and the deposit of large amounts of organic material after Hurricane Florence, the gas potential rose. Normally, landfill gas is flared off, but the proposed renewable route is much greener in two respects: it prevents methane from being released into the atmosphere and it generates income. The contract gives Archaea Energy two years to construct its facility, complete all testing and run a pipeline from the new facility to the existing Piedmont Natural Gas pipeline along N.C. 421.