By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Lethbridge gets Federal infrastructure dollars for Landfill Gas Collection System feasibility study

Dec 15, 2017 | 2:50 PM

LETHBRIDGE –  The Federal Government’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Communities has announced funding for environmental initiatives in 72 communities across the country, and Lethbridge is one of them.

The city is getting $101,200 for a Landfill Gas Collection System feasibility study, from the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program. It’s a program that encourages study of emerging technologies to harvest and store sources of renewable energy to reduce corporate emissions.

City Waste Recycling Specialist Mandi Parker says they’ll be updating their landfill gas production assessment, looking at the landfill gas management plan, and then doing a landfill gas utilisation feasibility assessment.

“We really just want to know, can our landfill generate the gas that we would need, to collect it and either burn it off, or use it for electricity.”

Several years ago, the city did a similar study, although nothing really came of it. And Parker explains that there have been many changes since then.

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“There’s been quite a few changes with the termination of the specified gas emitters regulation – the greenhouse gas reporting program with Environment and Climate Change Canada, Alberta’s Climate Change Leadership Program with a focus on methane, and with carbon levies and carbon credits moving around and changing. We just want to make that sure we’re on the front end of capturing this, so it will benefit the city.”

At this point, Parker says there is an “engineered cap” that can go over the landfill that will keep methane gas in. But until parts of the landfill are closed, the gases simply escape into the atmosphere.

Depending on whether it actually is feasible to capture methane from the landfill, the infrastructure to capture and produce electricity could be installed sometime in the next five years, depending on the type of technology used.

Parker says Lethbridge doesn’t have nearly as much ground moisture as other cities like Regina, that currently collect methane gas from their landfills.

“I don’t think we’re behind [other cities], we’re definitely not leading the pack, but we’re not behind in any means.”

The study should get underway in Jan. 2018, and Parker says once it’s finished, they may be eligible to apply for a capital grant to install a system.