LAYTON — Residents living near the Wasatch Energy Systems burn plant are breathing cleaner air, thanks to a $7 million upgrade of pollution equipment two years ago.
WES executive director Nathan Rich said 2002 was the first full year of operation with the new pollution equipment installed. Large reductions were made in emitted pollutants, especially cadmium, lead, mercury and dioxin, all of which are calculated in pounds. Other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, are calculated in tons.
Overall, from 2000 to 2002, the burn plant reduced its total emissions by 47 percent, or 317.7 tons.
Dioxin/furan was reduced during the period by 99 percent, from .276 pounds to .0014 pounds; mercury was reduced 96 percent, from 188 to 7.2 pounds; lead from 558 to 48 pounds, a 91 percent reduction; and cadmium, from 53.5 pounds to 3.6 pounds, a 93 percent reduction.
Oxides of nitrogen were reduced the least — just 12 percent — from 315 to 277 tons. Other suspended particulates, however, saw much larger reductions. Sulfur dioxide was reduced by 62 percent, from 80.4 to 30.9 tons; carbon monoxide was cut by 39 percent, from 50.3 to 30.5 tons; hydrogen chloride, by 93 percent, from 197 to 13.6 tons; and fluorides, by 99.8 percent, from 11.2 to .02 tons.
Rich said the reduction in CO emission demonstrates the substantial progress the burn plant has made over the past eight years to improve combustion at the plant.
"Most notably during this past year the State Division of Air Quality agreed that it would be appropriate to determine the facility compliance with CO emission limitations based upon a 24-hour averaging period rather than a four-hour period," he said.
In making the change, Rich said, the state did express a concern that the 24-hour averaging period could result in higher overall CO emissions from the plant.
"In fact, the longer averaging period allowed operators to focus on the overall performance of the units rather than making quick changes to avoid a four-hour exceedance, resulting in a substantial reduction in CO emissions from the facility," he said.
During March, the waste-to-energy facility experienced a series of unscheduled outages, Rich said. As a result, overall availability of energy for sale was down, although the plant sold 41 million pounds of steam to Hill Air Force Base and 83 megawatt hours of electricity were sold to Utah Power during the month.
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