By KAREN CIMINO WILSON
DavidsonNews.net

A company called ReVenture wants to change the way communities across the country deal with waste, starting with plans for a renewable energy business park on 667 acres on the Catawba River in northwest Mecklenburg County. In approving changes in the county solid waste management plan this month, the town has thrown its support behind the idea.

At its July 13 meeting, Davidson’s Town Board unanimously approved proposed changes to the county’s solid waste management plan that would allow the county to contract with ReVenture for the recycling of yard waste. Town officials call the proposal exciting. Representatives from Mecklenburg County Solid Waste are meeting with cities throughout the county to ask for approval of the changes.

“I’m coming before you for a simple amendment to the solid waste management plan, but it has significant impact to how we manage solid waste in Mecklenburg County,” Mecklenburg County Solid Waste Director Bruce Gledhill said before the board’s vote on July 13. (See our coverage of the July 13 meeting.)

The ReVenture project would redevelop an existing hazardous-waste site that formerly belonged to Southern Dye Stuff. Chemicals seeped into the ground when the site belonged to Southern Dye Stuff, landing it on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list of contaminated sites.

TURNING YARD WASTE TO ENERGY

ReVenture would take up to 50,000 tons of county yard waste per year and use it to create fuel in a biomass power plant. Biomass encompasses the diverse fuels that can be made from timber, agricultural and food processing wastes or from fuel crops grown specifically for electricity generation. Most biomass power plants burn lumber, agricultural or construction and demolition wood waste.

Last year, Mecklenburg County handled 92,000 tons of yard waste.

“They would produce a fuel from that material,” Mr. Gledhill said. “That is consistent with what we do now. About 40 percent can be processed. A year from now ReVenture would take 50,000 tons of our yard waste.”

ReVenture also would take 370,000 tons of solid waste the cities and the county.

“The prospective agreement would take the waste from the county once the agreement with the landfill behind the Charlotte Motor Speedway expires,” Gledhill said, adding that the landfill by the speedway is owned by Republic.

Waste would start moving to ReVenture in 2012 at a cost of $25 per ton. Currently, the cost is $26.50 per ton.

“This is a 20-year relationship we would go forward with,” Mr. Gledhill said.

Tom McKittrick, president of ReVenture developer Forsite Development, told the town board the 667-acre site is zoned industrial and is located about 1.4 miles off Catawba River.

“It is currently listed as a Superfund site. We’ve been working with the EPA for a year to remove it from that list,” Mr. McKittrick said.

The company is also working to get a “brownfield” agreement with the state. “Our redevelopment plan is to create a renewable energy industrial park,” Mr. McKittrick said.

He said the biomass power plant would be the anchor. Plans also may include a water treatment plan, a 4-megawatt solar plant on a closed landfill and alternative fueling stations.

“The country is littered with large-scale industrial tracts. We think this a viable plan to use what’s there and promote renewable energy,” he said. “This is the largest project of its type in the country. We’re making extensive progress.”

Part of the plan includes acquiring the closed landfill, a 150-acre piece of property on Statesville Road. That landfill closed in 1970.

“This is the largest project of its type in the country,” McKittrick said. “We’re making extensive progress.”

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS CONCERNED

Some environmental groups have voiced concerns about the proposed project.

Last week, the Central Piedmont Sierra Club and Sustain Charlotte launched a campaign against construction of the proposed incinerator.

Individuals from the Central Piedmont Sierra Club, SustainCharlotte and the Catawba Riverkeeper raised concerns that the waste will be incinerated and regarding the proposed wastewater treatment plant. Sustain Charlotte and the Sierra Club concerns included the documented public health and environmental impacts of incinerating garbage as well as the increased cost of incineration to taxpayers compared to waste reduction through increased reuse and recycling.

Mr. McKittrick told the Town Board the group has been working with the environmental groups to address their concerns.

“We’re working really hard with all the environmental groups to make sure we’re addressing all of their concerns,” he said. “Concerns are air emissions and recycling. Are we competing with recycling?”

Mr. McKittrick said the ReVenture project would complement the county’s recycling program. He added that the project is looking at gasification.

“We’re looking at a gasification concept. We’re not proposing an incinerator,” he said. “We think this is a great use of this site.”

Any property not used in the project would be put into a conservation easement, McKittrick said.

“It’s an exciting prospect of turning waste into energy,” Davidson Mayor John Woods said about the project.

Mr. McKittrick said the project is focused on turning waste streams into fuel or energy.

“We’re in a paradigm shift on how waste streams are handled,” he said.

RELATED LINKS

July 20, 2010, Charlotte Observer, “Critics oppose ReVenture waste plant.”

ReVenture Park website, http://www.reventurepark.com/