Evergreen opportunity

PALMER — Coming next month will be the long awaited decision that Mat-Su Valley sewage and septage pumpers have been waiting for. The Mat-Su Borough Wastewater and Septage Advisory Board held an emergency meeting in early May to put out a Request for Proposal to both Mat-Su Septage and Evergreen Consortium

While wastewater woes are commonplace in Alaska, Dr. Abi Assadi, CEO of Clark Engineering with Evergreen Consortium, believes that knowledge that Evergreen has utilized worldwide would be put to good use in the Mat-Su Borough.

“I told the board I’m not a native Alaskan but if you allow me, I will help you to preserve it and that’s what my slogan would be. I’m there to bring value. I’m not a tree hugger, I love the environment but I’m not a tree hugger. I basically want to make sure whatever we do is financially sustainable and if we can sustain the environment, it’s one of the most beautiful lands I’ve ever seen in my life,” Assadi said.

Assadi noticed connections like Minnesota Drive when he arrived in Alaska from Minnesota. Assadi made the connection from medical innovations at the University of Minnesota that were taught and shared worldwide. He wants to do the same with the Evergreen proposal for a septage treatment facility in the Mat-Su Borough. Assadi and his business partner were recently awarded a patent on what they refer to as a fourth generation anaerobic digestion to use liquid waste to help convert solid waste into energy.

“We use the organics convert it into bio gas, so those are the two big advantages that we can bring to the Borough,” Assadi said. “Once the plan is in place it’s going to last a long time because you don’t have to keep adding cells.”

Assadi believes that the Evergreen proposal would provide longer life of landfill cells and decrease the tipping fees by producing energy with the waste.

“Resource recovery and renewable energy, so we bring the entire picture to the project,” Assadi said.

Assadi said their system can become inflation resistant by providing energy from their anaerobic digestion waste conversion system.

WSAB member Tom Stoelting has had a long history pumping septage, and is anxious to get the project moving. In his four decades driving a pumping truck on and off, he’s seen and dealt with a large number of problems that need to be dealt with quickly.

“All of them have one thing in common they’re all lagoons,” Stoelting said. “I’m for local, but I’m also for looking out of the box later on down the road.”

Stoelting called the emergency meeting to deal with the RFP to the two companies that had expressed interest in the wastewater treatment facility. Stoelting specified that billing fees charged to pumpers should be in tare weight, meaning they are paid for the weight of what they dump at the facility.

“I just think we ought to go and try to get it done right this time,” Stoelting said. “As a businessman, I’ve got to look at all my costs and part of it is fuel electricity just to keep the doors open just like everybody else. So I’m for the green energy very much so being that’s what it’s costing, the same thing. Nothing.”

Stoelting was particularly impressed with Evergreen’s presentation. He consulted with Dr. Assadi on the pyrolysis method and excited to learn about their partnership with the Atlanta airport. The Atlanta Airport has seen EPA sanctions and had difficulty dealing with their 140 million patrons a year. Evergreen partnered with the Atlanta Airport to take their waste energy and converts it into methane and carbon dioxide. Their waste energy will be repurposed to fertilize crops and provide fresh fish and produce to the airport’s restaurants grown on the property.

“Atlanta is talking to Georgia Tech to use the facility as an educational facility to show kids things we can do to preserve the environment and not waste material but actually convert it into useable material,” Assadi said.

Assadi said that the technology they plan to employ in the Mat-Su Valley is already in use in Wisconsin on a smaller scale. Evergreen plans to hire locally as much as possible, and Assadi specifically mentioned landfill workers that he would like to train to work in the wastewater facility.

“It requires higher level of expertise so they will eventually learn the trade we train them in the biochemical aspect of the work force to be smarter and paid more, so we are not eliminating local jobs, people who work in the landfill can come and work,” Assadi said.

Assadi expects the project to take 14 months to build, if awarded the bid. The WSAB has 2020 as a target for their own wastewater facility, citing mounting frustration from pumpers that make multiple trips to Anchorage. Assadi said that he felt that the project was special given the high cost of energy in the Last Frontier. Assadi mentioned the other elephant in the room, the smell. At a the grand opening of one of their facilities in Holland, they served pizza inside the building as the facility was in operation.

“This solves both liquid waste and solid waste problem, that’s the uniqueness of this project really brings. It basically kills two birds with one stone,” Assadi said.