Several new reports with information related to the Arbor Hills Landfill recently became available on the State of Michigan Environmental, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) Website. Although there is no unexpected information contained in these reports, The Conservancy Initiative believes all relevant information should be made available to residents.
EGLE Releases Annual Solid Waste Report
EGLE recently released its 24th annual solid waste report. This report is issued annually and details waste produced by county and waste accepted by each landfill in the state. Here are the key items in the report:
Arbor Hills Landfill capacity is estimated at 8 years (page 23 of the 2019 report). The Conservancy Initiative is attempting to verify this estimate.
More than 85% of the waste accepted at Arbor Hills originates outside of Washtenaw County. This begs the question - will Washtenaw County need a landfill when Arbor Hills’ capacity is expended.
Arbor Hills Landfill is not accepting any waste from Canada (page 28).
Review the report and past years’ reports here.
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Emission Testing
Arbor Hills Energy (also known as Fortistar) commissioned emission testing on the outlet of the Turbine #4. The testing is required by the landfill’s Clean Air Act Renewable Operating Permit. As expected, Arbor Hills Energy failed the test and continues to exceed their allow permit limits for SO2 emissions.
Test Results Permit Limit
SO2 emissions (lbs SO2/MWhr) 2.16 0.9
Note - 1) SO2 permit limit for turbine #4 is based on MWhr of power produced in the turbine.
2) Emission testing for turbines #1, #2, #3 was last conducted in October 2018. The testing showed SO2 limits were being exceeded.
3) Arbor Hills Energy has been out of compliance with SO2 emissions since at least May of 2015.
The latest emission test report is available here.
Flare Performance Test Report
Advanced Disposal is responsible for the 3 permitted flares at the landfill. Advanced Disposal commissioned performance testing on the two enclosed flares in December 2019. The Conservancy Initiative believes the two enclosed flares were recently refurbished (we are currently verifying this information). The testing is required by the landfill’s Clean Air Act Renewable Operating Permit to demonstrated performance with EPA standards for landfill flares (i.e. - the destruction of organic compounds, CO and NOx emission).
Both Flares passed the performance testing. The test report is available here. Performance testing was successfully completed on the Utility Flare in April 2019. The test report is available here.
The Conservancy Initiative cautions readers that emission test reports are very detailed and can be difficult to read. For those that are adventurous here is a link to the majority of EGLE’s publicly available documents concerning Arbor Hills. The documents include Test Reports, Violations Notices, Landfill Responses to violations, etc.