Tontitown Landfill - Articles - Zimbio

Treehugger interviews Wes Muir of Tontitown

Tue, 28 Mar 2007 16:14:14 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team

TH:- The gas collection and control system at the Tontitown, Arkansas landfill uses approximately 75 gas extraction wells (as pictured) to collect landfill gases generated by decomposing waste. Thermal destruction of collected gases occurs at a central, high-temperature flare. Why was this necessary?

WM:-In 2001, we began addressing issues related to methane gas seeping into and impacting the groundwater in areas around the Tontitown landfill. We voluntarily installed this system because it was the most effective option, one that went beyond standard Federal and State regulatory requirements. Further, we worked with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to ensure the landfill gas system was installed faster than would have been required by standard administrative procedures. (See detailed discussion of this matter here.) In fact, the majority of the gas collected from the landfill comes from areas that are not related to the remediation of the groundwater problem. These areas, which are above and beyond regulatory requirements, are what have generated the carbon offsets that have been certified, independently audited, registered on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and sold to Terrapass.

Read the full interview at Treehugger

TerraPass shows its commitment

Mon, 20 Mar 2007 22:11:16 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team

A recent BusinessWeek article casts some doubt on the benefits of a carbon offset project at the Tontitown dump. The project is funded by TerraPass, a leader in consumer-purchased carbon offsets.

TerraPass is responding to the article in a very transparent and genuine manner. They're conducting a full review of the Tontitown landfill gas flaring project that was questioned in the article and they've stopped all purchases until their review is complete. Better yet, they plan to publish their review and process on their blog .

This review has the potential to shed light on the benefits of carbon offsets and the efficacy of using carbon trading to reduce climate change. Kudos to the team at TerraPass for being so open and proactive about this debate.

Terrapass posts highlights of Tontitown regulatory test findings

Tue, 28 Mar 2007 16:16:25 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team

Waste Management began work on the methane flaring system prior to the groundwater contamination system.
Waste Management considered five alternative means of addressing the groundwater issue.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) wrote a letter strongly urging WM to complete the methane flaring system in order to address the groundwater problem.
The minimal system required to address the groundwater contanimation problem would have consisted of 26 “out-of-refuse” methane wells.
WM has spent approximately $500,000 on additional “in-refuse” wells over the lifetime of the project.
The in-refuse wells account for an estimated 99% of the methane capture at the landfill.

Check out the Terrablog for more details on the investigation into Tontitown

Panel report on Tontitown Landfill

Tue, 9 May 2007 16:27:16 GMT

posted by Tony
The panel report is finally out for the Tontitown landfill project . Terrapass has a nice summary of the panel findings.

Basically the panel gave qualified approval to the Tontitown project for meeting “a minimum threshold of additionality.”

Terrapass dug into this project in full detail and found that the project met several additionality tests as well.

The panel also makes a few recommendations for further criteria Terrapass (and for that matter, other organizations) can apply to future projects in order to increase effectiveness

The panel consisted of William Schlesinger of Duke University, Dan Kammen of Berkeley, and Mike Gillenwater of Princeton.

The complete panel findings are posted online at the TerraPass wiki, here .

Welcome to our blog about the Tontitown Landfill and additionality of carbon offsets

Mon, 20 Mar 2007 21:53:10 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team
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