Dalton Landfill Manages Methane Gas

The Dalton Whitfield County landfill will be recycling methane gas by sending it down the road for the Dow Chemical Industrial plant to use. The idea has been in the making for nearly four years and now this three million dollar process has come to life.

Truckloads of garbage are being collected and dumped in the Dalton-Whitfield County landfill. The bacteria from the garbage emits harmful greenhouse gases however a new project is allowing the methane gas to help the environment with new technology.

This is our chance to think globally and act locally everybody can do their share and their part this is our contribution to that concept," says Norman Barashick, representative for the Dalton-Whitfield County Waste Management Authority.

Thousands of methane equivalents from wells are usually wasted. Now that gas will go straight to Dow industries. A new machine located at the landfill is the main part of a project to reduce greenhouse emissions and make a greener Whitfield County.

The new machine takes methane gas from the landfill and cleans it then through underground pipes it sends it to Dow Chemical two miles away.

Seventeen acres of clean gas will go to Dow Chemical per minute. The methane gas will be used in Dow's boilers to operate their machines with steam. It will replace ninety percent of the natural gas Dow uses which will leave more gas to heat homes and make other products.

"We are extremely excited about this project because it shows how public and private partnership can come together for the environment," says Dow Chemical Vice President for Susatinability Neil Hawkins.

The project costs 3 million dollars but officials say in the long run it will pay for itself. The Dalton Whitfield County Waste Management Authority is paying for the project but Dow will pay for the gas as used. Officials say this project is helping Dalton become a greener city.

"The annual benefits from a project like this would represent taking 17,000 cars off the road on an annual basis or planting 24,000 acres of trees," says Norman Barashick.

 The Waste Management Authority says it chose Dow Chemicals mainly because of location and their contributions to the carpet industry. There are about 450 of these landfill gas projects around the United States and ten of them are in Georgia.