Dallas' garbage on its way to becoming Dallas' energy
06:02 PM CDT on Friday, July 11, 2008
By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News
rbush@dallasnews.com
On a good day, the McCommas landfill on Dallas’ southern edge looks less like a giant trash heap than a series of rolling hills pocked with some serious litter.
Most of the garbage, collected and compressed over the years, is covered with dirt, and if you’re looking in the right direction, parts of the place could even be described as scenic.
But it’s what’s boiling underneath that dirt that has become important to the city.
The garbage, all of Dallas’ old banana peels and milk cartons, its newspapers and coffee grounds, are slowly turning into fuel that can heat homes and cook meals.
Now, the city has a plan to make the McCommas landfill the first in Texas to use biotechnology to rapidly produce methane gas.
If the plan works, it will essentially turn the landfill into a giant compost pile that could produce enough natural gas to serve the needs of some 16,000 homes.
And according to the most optimistic forecasts, it could mean McCommas will be the last landfill Dallas ever needs.
“Even though it looks like we’re just burying trash, it’s really a huge science project,” said Ron Smith, assistant director of the city’s sanitation department. “It’s probably going to end up being the largest in the country.”
The city is currently preparing the first “cell” of the landfill for use in the project.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/071208dnmetlandfill.45dcda08.html
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