The Environmental Atheist

I've really procrastinated at finishing this blog post, but something posted on Stardust Musings today spurred me on (see the bottom of this post). I had a lovely outing with my son a few weekends ago. We went to the Vancouver Landfill's yearly Open House. It might not sound like a guided tour of the city dump would be very interesting - much less, appealing - but it was. It actually gives me some hope for the world when I hear about some of the programs they've implemented there.

Take, for example, their attempts to capture, clean and reuse the methane that builds up in the mountain of waste. They've basically threaded the landfill with perforated HDPE pipe in order to suck out the greenhouse gasses that are produced by waste organic material. They started by sinking vertical pipes into the mound with moderate results. Now they prep new areas by laying down the pipe horizontally, covering it with waste building material to keep them patent, and piling the garbage on top. The new technique has drastically increased the amount of greenhouse gasses they can pull from the heap. Once collected, they dry it, strip out the CO2, and use the methane to heat a nearby greenhouse operation. Supposedly, plans are in the works to power some city vehicles with the methane.

They also have a massive composting unit there where they turn all of the yard waste collected in the city into lovely compost that they turn around and sell to gardeners. I think they were giving out free bags of the stuff that day, but since we don't have a garden at the moment, I wasn't able to partake.

There are quite a few experimental gardens on the site. They are working with native species they hope to reintroduce to the area as they finish filling up areas of the site. I took a picture of some of the test beds they've set up to figure out the best mix of cover for the waste. Most of the mixes include some proportion of treated sewage retrieved from the nearby waste water treatment plant. It will likely require further testing regarding any long-term impact, but for at least a portion of the treated sewage, this seems like a reasonable solution. The site can't really be developed after it reaches capacity. It will remain as greenspace for decades afterward - residual gasses from decomposition (and their continued extraction) will preclude any other use.

In all it was an eye-opening day. I'd like to take the sprog on more outings like this, especially when he's able to understand what he's looking at. For now, it's enough to watch him enjoy a display of the birds of prey that are used for bird control on the site, or see him get excited about seeing a big-assed bulldozer or robotic garbage truck!

The cherry on top of it all was this strange atmospheric display. I caught a picture of it, not really knowing what it was. But now, thanks to Stardust1954, I realize that I caught a glimpse of something quite rare. I guess I was in the right place and looking up at the right time.

Labels: energy