Southern Idaho Solid Waste, SIEDO Planning 400-Acre Methane Production Plant

9/9/2010
 
The Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization announced Thursday during its annual summit that it is working with Southern Idaho Solid Waste to build a renewable energy plant that will convert methane gas into electricity at the Milner Butte Landfill west of Burley.

Jan Rogers, executive director of SIEDO, and Doug Manning, city of Burley economic development director, confirmed that the president of the waste site has offered about 400 acres of the 800 acre site for the plant's use.

Manning said the current proposal is to extract the methane gas from decomposing garbage, which is collected from seven counties in south-central Idaho, and use it to power turbines that would create electricity.

"It's still in its infancy, but it's definitely moving forward," he said.

The plant brought a methane-gas collection system online in September 2009. Tests then showed that the landfill's methane gas flowed at between 315 and 330 standard cubic feet per minute, more than enough to support a generator.

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