Fishing For Energy Offers To Dispose Of Old Fishing Gear For Free

Covanta Turns Trash To Power

By Aaron Boyd

East End fishermen will now be able to get rid of their old fishing gear free-of-charge through a partnership between Covanta Energy and Southampton Town. Photos by Aaron Boyd

Southampton - Covanta Energy, which manages energy-from-waste plants throughout the country, including four facilities on Long Island, is extending an offer to fishermen on the East End in their Fishing for Energy program. Through a partnership with Southampton Town, Covanta will accept and process all marine debris for free, including old fishing gear that would otherwise represent a great expense for fishermen and the environment.

Vice-President of Environmental Science and Community Affairs John Waffenschmidt, who is also a certified ecologist, explained the genesis of the fishing-for-energy program at a press conference on the Shinnecock commercial docks announcing their outreach to the East End.

Covanta manages energy from waste facilities, where trash is burned to heat boilers, creating steam that powers a turbine, producing electricity from garbage that would otherwise clutter landfills or be trucked off-island. The Hempstead plant, the largest on Long Island, has the capacity to process 2,800 tons of waste per day, though they average approximately 2,500 tons-a-day throughout the year according to Facility Manager Ken Straitz. That rate produces 78 to 79 megawatts per hour, just over 600 kilowatts per ton, totaling approximately 1,850 gross megawatts a day. According to Straitz, about 10 percent of the energy created is used to run the facility while the rest is sold to the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).

The Fishing for Energy program started in Hawaii, where Covanta employees were "looking to solve a local problem and help the environment," according to John Waffenschmidt, vice-president of environmental sciences and community affairs and a certified ecologist, "This is a way to have a source location for disposal that doesn't put it on the municipality or the fishermen."

Covanta and Southampton Town will be using the Shinnecock Commercial Docks on Dune Road in Hampton Bays as their test location. Fishermen will be given the ability to dispose of fishing gear or any marine debris they've accumulated free-of-charge by contacting Jon Erwin, Southampton's director of Parks Maintenance, at 631-728-4170 to set up an appointment, preferably one day in advance.

"A lot of times we forget that these are small businesses," Lynn Dwyer, Northeast Assistant Director for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), said in support of the program, "If you can reduce the cost of doing business, especially in this economy, then we're doing real good." Along with a place for fishermen to dispose of their gear, Dwyer was also hopeful that any debris taken out of the water would be disposed of properly as well. "If a fishermen out on the water pulls something in, is he going to bring it in and dispose of it at his own expense?" she posed, explaining that such waste will be accepted in the fishing-for-energy program.

Southampton Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Allyn Jackson estimated that the program could save the town a few thousand dollars a year.

"It's not just the issue of gear that's worn out that ends up in the municipal waste stream or thrown out to sea," Marine Specialist Emerson Hasbrouck, of the Cornell Cooperative Extension's Marine Program, agreed, "There's a lot of material that fishermen catch, especially trawlers - derelict fishing gear, shipwrecks - you'd be surprised at all the stuff fishermen find," he continued, "In the past a lot of it went back in or was left in a pile on the dock." Under this program, all marine waste would be accepted at no cost to the fishermen.

In the past, Southampton Town would take care of cleaning up the docks, filling about two dumpsters a year according to Allyn Jackson, superintendent of Parks and Recreation for the town. Currently, that expense is covered by the commercial dock fees, which the town will now be able to redirect to dock maintenance or other necessary costs. "The people who will be happiest with this [are] the fishermen's wives," Jackson joked, "They can finally get the gear out of the backyard."

The heat from the combustion process is transfered to water boilers, whereupon the steam turns the turbine to produce electricity. Pictured above: the turbine at Covanta's Hempstead facility.

Energy From Waste
Covanta generates a profit by charging municipalities to dispose of their waste at their plants and then selling the energy to the power company, but power generation alone is not the main reason for building and maintaining energy-from-waste facilities. "These plants, I don't think they'd be built for the energy," Environmental Engineer Scott Wheeler said, "They're built to get rid of trash."

Large cranes pull the garbage up from the tipping floor and drop it down into chutes that lead to the furnace. One claw can hold the entire contents of a single garbage truck.

The two main causes of global climate change, according to scientists, are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, however methane is 20-times more potent than CO2 and the main source of man-made methane is landfills. As garbage decomposes in a landfill the by-product is methane gas, which is usually released through the cap at a regulated pace. Covanta environmentalists argue that by incinerating waste that would otherwise decompose in a landfill they are helping to lessen man's impact on the environment.

The plants do produce CO2 through the combustion process, however "volume-wise we're a lot less," Straitz asserted. Added to that the reduction in the number of trucks on the road transporting Long Island's garbage to points outside New York and the energy being put back into the system that won't have to come from fossil fuel plants (the largest single contributors to CO2 emissions) and the energy-from-waste program presents itself as a green, renewable alternative.

Currently, 25 states recognize energy-from-waste as a renewable energy source. New York does not fall into that category, though the federal energy legislation now before Congress does include energy-from-waste right along with solar and wind power sources.

Of the 2.6 million tons of waste produced annually on Long Island, Covanta facilities process 1.6 million tons. The bulk of Covanta's operations, the Hempstead plant, processes one million tons of garbage a year while plants in Babylon and Huntington pick up much of the remainder. Covanta has recently acquired an existing plant in Islip that processes a minimal amount of waste for the time being, though there is room to expand.

There is room to expand energy-from-waste nationwide, as well. According to Covanta, 64 percent of American waste is deposited in a landfill, while 29 percent is recycled or composted and a mere seven percent is converted into power. That is a pittance when compared with European countries like Germany and Denmark, who convert 32 percent and 55 percent of their trash to energy, respectively. There are currently 89 energy-from-waste facilities in the U.S. (41 owned or managed by Covanta) and the process is fast becoming a viable business in the blooming green energy industry.