The
Camden County Municipal Utility Authority, New Jersey
has imple-
mented a series of operating performance improvements, green infrastructure,
solar energy, and currently underway, methane recovery from biosolids. Com-
bined operating and capital costs are now lower than they were in 1996, effluent
is cleaner, as are the tributaries to the Delaware River, and vendor-financed solar
photovoltaic arrays save about $300,000 a year in energy costs.
The
State of Connecticut
, as part of its program
to meet nitrogen load reductions to Long Island
Sound, has established a successful nitrogen
credit exchange/trading program. During the
period 2002-2009, $46 million in nitrogen credits
were bought and sold, providing a cost-effective
alternative for 79 clean water agencies to meet
their nitrogen waste load allocations as part of
the total maximum daily load (TMDL) adopted for
Long Island Sound. Compared to other alternatives,
these facilities have saved between $300 and $400
million through trading.
The
City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, signed
a $2 billion agreement with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency in 2012. The agreement allows
the Agency to provide technical support and moni-
toring, including in school gardens and low-income
neighborhood revitalization, through green design.
The Agency will be working hand in hand with the
City’s 25-year Green City, Clean Waters plan, which
aims to protect and enhance urban watersheds by
managing stormwater through green infrastructure
techniques.
Gloversville-Johnstown,
New York
‘s wastewater facil-
ity, serving 25,000 residents
and 12 local industries,
generates 90% of its energy
needs in its anaerobic digest-
er processing biosolids from
the plant plus local dairy
wastes. It saves $500,000 a
year in energy costs and nets
$750,000 a year in addition-
al revenue from dairy waste
acceptance fees.
Detroit’s Water and
Sewerage Department,
Michigan
will provide the
local electric power company
800,000 wet tons per day
of biosolids, which will be
dried and used in its Rouge
River Power Plant in place of
coal, helping meet the State
of Michigan’s mandate to
secure 10% of its power from
renewable sources.
D.C. Water
’s new Clean Riv-
ers, Green District partnership
with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency uses green
infrastructure to prevent
pollution from coming into
contact with rainwater, while
also providing public health,
livability, and economic
benefits for the District of
Columbia and its residents.
Essex Junction, Vermont
’s two million gallons per day (MGD) clean water utility recently installed two-30
kilowatt methane-fueled micro-turbines to generate its own electricity from biosolids. In this combined
heat and power (CHP) project, waste heat offsets the cost of fuel needed to heat its anaerobic digesters. This
project provides a total energy savings of $33,000 per year, and reduces CO
2
emissions by 30 tons per year.
The
Hampton Roads Sanitation
District (HRSD), Virginia
recovers
and converts about 85 percent of phos-
phorus and 25 percent of ammonia
from its dewatering process into a slow
release fertilizer, Crystal Green™. Fer-
tilizer revenues offset both capital and
operating costs, effectively reducing
discharge of nutrients at no cost to
HRSD and, compared to alternatives,
saves ratepayers money.
The
New York City
’s Green Infrastructure Plan
predicts that, “every fully vegetated acre of green
infrastructure would provide total annual benefits
of $8,522 in reduced energy demand, $166 in
reduced CO
2
emissions, $1,044 in improved air
quality, and $4,725 in increased property value.”
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