Ken Kolp used to start his workday with a two-hour trip to the East Bay to dispose of thousands of gallons of slimy slop sucked out of area grease traps.
Now, he just drives his tanker truck over to Santa Rosa鈥檚 Laguna Road wastewater treatment plant, pumps the oily ooze into one of four new holding tanks, and is back on his route in a matter of minutes.
The process saves time, money and environmental impacts for local businesses like his, North Bay Restaurant Service, as well as bigger players such as Lagunitas Brewing Co., Amy鈥檚 Kitchen and Cowgirl Creamery.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great big help because instead of having a 70-mile trip, we now have a 7-mile trip,鈥� said Ryan Neal, sales manager of the Santa Rosa-based hauler.
Since Santa Rosa began operating its new $3 million high-strength waste receiving station in August, the project is proving to be an environmental success story, said Adam Ross, an engineer at consulting firm Brown and Caldwell, which helped design the facility.
鈥淚t鈥檚 already achieving all of the project goals that we set out for it,鈥� Ross said. To date, the treatment plant has received 2.3 million gallons of liquid waste from area businesses. Having a local disposal option has so far saved 609 trips out of county, most to the East Bay Municipal Utility鈥檚 District鈥檚 facility in Orinda.
At about 20 gallons of diesel saved per trip, that鈥檚 12,180 gallons of fuel local businesses didn鈥檛 have to buy and burn. Add to that lower personnel costs and less wear and tear on vehicles and area roads, and the savings to local businesses is clear.
But are the people who bankrolled the project 鈥� the 230,000 water and sewer users in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Rohnert Park and Cotati 鈥� getting a return on their investment?
It turns out that this tough-to-treat waste is proving to be a valuable fuel for the plant, boosting its production of biogas, and allowing the power-hungry facility to generate new revenue and lower its energy bills.
The combination of new income and cheaper energy means the project is on track to pay for itself in a few years and curb the need for rate increases.
鈥淧rojects like this help us keep rate increases as low as possible,鈥� said Mike Prinz, deputy director in charge of the plant. The plant already turns the solid waste collected from local sewer systems into methane. This is done by collecting the sludge into four 1-million gallon digesters, where trillions of microbes break down the organic material in a warm, oxygen-free environment.
The byproduct methane is captured and fed into massive engines that generate electricity and heat for the plant.
Engineers hoped that by gradually adding nutrient-rich wastes from local businesses to the sludge, they could turbocharge the biologic process in the digesters, boosting biogas production and shrinking the plant鈥檚 power bills even further. Initial results have been promising, with biogas production up 40 percent in the first three months of operation. This has allowed the plant to start up a second gas generator and shave about $29,000 per month off its $3 million annual PG&E bill.
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