BRATTLEBORO — The Wyndham Solid Waste Management District needs to expand the Old Ferry Road food waste composting facility.
“That’s a good question. That’s what I say,” said district executive director Bob Spencer.
About two years ago, the district reached its permitted capacity previously approved by the Vermont Department of Natural Resources. Spencer said the state is working with his group to amend permits to secure funding for about $600,000 of the project.
“As you know, he told the Development Review Board at a hearing on Wednesday, where the board gave local approval to the state’s Act 250 permit review and site plan. Brattleboro is food scrap. A major participant in the conversion program, in fact it’s our biggest source of information and it’s been very successful, so the town is clearly a partner in this, the town carrier that collects the materials We think of it as Triple T Trucking.”
Spencer says his group provides composting programs to other haulers and unloading areas, and has grown to become Vermont’s second-largest food waste composting facility. He called the program “financially viable and successful.”
“We have a great product,” he said of the compost the district sells to retailers. there is.”
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Spencer said his group needs to control runoff water that comes into contact with the activated compost to take its permitted production capacity to the next level. After several engineering evaluations, the most cost-effective method is to build a building and do “three weeks of aggressive composting under that roof.”
Plans call for the approximately 4,300-square-foot building to be mounted on concrete blocks. Buildings may move or grow in the future.
“We pour concrete pads and form special channels that allow the piles to vent,” Spencer said. “This is a more high-tech method than the current method of rotating piles with loaders.”
Spencer said the project includes a receiving area that collects the gas and treats it with a soil biofilter, as well as an odor control system.
“We also have a blower system and a heat recovery system to increase throughput,” he said.
Funding is a challenge, but the district recently secured a $150,000 grant through the USDA’s Community Facilities Program. The district’s board of directors has committed her $225,000 from surplus funds to the project, and the district is applying for her two other grants.
Act 250 and stormwater permits and solid waste certification from the state must be approved.
“It’s a pretty complicated process, but we’re doing it,” Spencer told The Reformer. I have to.”