Palmer eyes waste heat to boost sewer treatment

PALMER — City council will meet today to discuss a recently returned report on the feasibility of using waste heat from a proposed power plant on the Alaska State Fairgrounds to increase the capacity of its sewer treatment plant.

“If the plant is going to be built and the fuel is going to be burned we might as well get everything out of it that we can,” said councilman Kevin Brown, one of the council’s more outspoken proponents of the idea.

Back in July, the council paid Mark A. Foster and Associates $24,960 to study how feasible it would be to use the proposed plant’s waste heat. That report is now in and will be the subject of the 5 p.m. meeting.

During last year’s mayoral election, Brown often brought up the power plant idea, saying it could eventually allow the city’s wastewater plant to blossom into a regional facility, fees from which could reduce residents’ taxes.

Speaking about the project on Monday, Brown said that for now he wants to take things a step at a time.

“Our first concern is making sure that we can thoroughly and completely process what we’re producing and we’re well situated so we could grow,” Brown said. “I could definitely see us growing to be the regional wastewater treatment facility.”

He said that in the long run the waste heat could even be used to heat buildings in the city. He said he thinks that will be a tough sell, but it’s not like the project entails using unproven technology.

“There are communities across the country that have done it and it has been phenomenally successful for them,” Brown said. “Most military bases in Alaska have been using this technology for a long time.”

The sewage plant has, in the past, run afoul of the federal Environmental Protection Agency because, during the winter, the bacteria in the ponds all but shut down. The city has since installed covers on the ponds and says all the issues regarding non-compliance with EPA regulations are a thing of the past. As for the power plant, it’s an idea that’s been floated since at least 2007. Back then it was the idea of a company called Tiqun energy and it called for a 60-megawatt plant. Brown said during the election that he has been working to get the Matanuska Electric Association on board with the plan. The latest iteration of the fair power plant idea has a different company, Alpine Energy, as the owner.

Foster’s report does not detail how big a plant Alpine is envisioning, noting that building a plant at all is contingent upon MEA agreeing to buy the power it generates. Brown said that recent belt-tightening at the city, which has slashed its budget, shouldn’t affect the project, since the city plans to build its part of the facility using grants.

He said the council isn’t expected to take any action on the plan at Tuesday’s meeting. Asked for his impressions of how fellow council members feel about the idea, he said that he’s far from having full buy-in on anything but the initial idea to improve sewage treatment.

But on that one part of the plan, “I’d say that the council is pretty much lined up behind this,” Brown said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.