Cambridge Bay council has a burning desire to reduce the waste piling up at the communitySA国际影视传媒檚 landfill, and the answer might lie in adopting an incineration system used in Alaska.
Mayor Pamela Gross said her hamlet is seeking an estimated cost to purchase an incinerator and to install a heat recovery system along with it. Discussions are underway with an American firm to design a solution for Cambridge Bay, and an estimated cost is not yet known, she said.
SA国际影视传媒淭hereSA国际影视传媒檚 waste no matter where you go in this world and weSA国际影视传媒檇 like to curb our waste as it is right now,SA国际影视传媒� said Gross, who travelled to the Alaskan city of Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, to learn more about the citySA国际影视传媒檚 use of an incinerator in February. SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檇 like to use that system hereSA国际影视传媒� I think anything would be better than a regular burn because chemicals are going all over the place when youSA国际影视传媒檙e burning them in the open. This way itSA国际影视传媒檚 contained and the energy from the burn can eventually go into a heat-recovery system.SA国际影视传媒�
In Utqiagvik, the city burns its garbage three times a week. The monthly average of 160 tons of solid waste is reduced to 56 tones of ash, lowering landfill volume by 65 per cent, according to Scott Danner, the citySA国际影视传媒檚 director of public works. Batteries, electronics and products with oil or lead are not permitted to be burned, however.
In an effort to keep smoke and odours from bothering the 4,400 residents, an 18-metre stack rises from the two incinerators, which are located outside of the city. As such, the incinerators are only designed to provide heat to the incineration facility itself, not any other buildings in the community.
Gross, who learned of the model in Utqiagvik through Polar Knowledge staff at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, wants to take that a step further in Cambridge Bay.
SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檇 like to burn the garbage and feed into something SA国际影视传媒� that could be back into the (power) grid or the greenhouse or something of that nature,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
UtqiagvikSA国际影视传媒檚 incineration system, in place since 1996, requires monthly and annual maintenance and the process of manually sorting trash to ensure prohibited products are kept out is SA国际影视传媒渓abour intensive,SA国际影视传媒� Danner acknowledged, but the payoff is a longer-lasting landfill.
Extending the life of the dump in Cambridge Bay is needed, Gross said.
SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檙e running out of area in our community. WeSA国际影视传媒檙e having to think about the future and trying to work on the pollution of plastics or things blowing from the dump into our ocean or lagoonSA国际影视传媒� we have such strong winds sometimes,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
If the costs associated with the incineration and heat recovery systems are within an acceptable range, it wouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 begin to roll out until 2020 at the earliest because it will be too late to get all of the equipment on the 2019 sealift, said Gross.
SA国际影视传媒淚tSA国际影视传媒檚 a bit of a longer-term project,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
The project would have to meet design requirements of territorial and federal environmental regulators and the incinerator is equipped with pollution control devices, senior administrative officer Marla Limousin added.
