The Davis County burn plant is part of a growing national industry that has the capacity to burn twice as much of the nation's household trash now as it did in 1986, according to a recent report of an industry association.
According to the study released by the National Solid Waste Management Association's Institute of Resource Recovery, total capacity of plants that turn trash into energy in the United States has nearly doubled since 1986 and could double again by 1992.Current figures show U.S. design capacity for burn plants across the nation is nearly 68,000 tons per day, a 32,500-ton increase from the January 1986 figure of 35,500 tons per day. The plants generally reduce the volume of waste by 90 percent into ash which is buried in landfills.
"This additional capacity will become increasingly important as many communities around the country run out of landfill space over the next few years," Allen Moore, National Solid Wastes Management Association president, said about the report.
The Davis County plant, located in Layton and operated by the Davis County Solid Waste Management and Energy Recovery Special Service District, is one of 10 located in the West. Others in the region are located in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington. The Davis County plant, Utah's only waste-to-energy plant, has the capacity to burn 400 tons a day, but usually processes an average of 350 tons.
The report shows that in 36 states 122 resource recovery plants - which burn garbage to produce electricity or steam - process trash produced by more than 32 million people. The plants generate enough energy each year to supply electricity for 1.2 million households.
Another 74 plants, currently under construction or on the drawing boards, could be in operation by 1992. They would add another 63,000-ton-per-day capacity.
The report dismisses concerns that are frequently raised about the safety of the emissions and ash of the plants. A plant, for example, in Marion County, Oregon, removes about 96.2 percent of cancer-causing dioxins from emissions. More than 99 percent of all lead, cadmium and other heavy metals are removed from the air through high temperatures, scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters, the report says.
Ash, properly buried in landfills that meet federal standards, does not pose danger to the environment. Three recent studies show that the concentration of heavy metals in liquid that leaches from landfills remains well below Environmental Protection Agency limits, the report says.
The plants are either mass-burn facilities, like the Davis County one, refuse-driven fuel plants or modular plants. There are 41 mass-burn plants that burn municipal waste, 28 refuse-driven plants that remove recyclable or unburnable materials and shred or process the rest into a uniform fuel and 53 modular plants that are similar to mass-burn plants but are smaller and usually prefabricated.
Only about 13 percent of the nation's trash is processed in waste-to-energy plants, 11 percent is recycled and 76 percent is discarded in landfills, according to the report.
"Other industrialized countries are way ahead of us. For example, Japan and West Germany burn a much higher proportion of their garbage in waste-to-energy plants - 23 percent and 30 percent respectively - and also recycle more of their waste. Clearly, these figures show that resource recovery industry has significant potential for future growth," Moore said.