42-foot flare for landfill odor control approved by state

A 42-foot flare will soon be installed at the Arbor Hills landfill, just west of Northville Township, as a way of temporarily controlling noxious odors until more permanent solutions are in place.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced last week it had issued a permit for a "candlestick" flare on the north end of Arbor Hills, and a spokesman for Advanced Disposal Services, which owns the landfill at Six Mile and Napier in Salem Township, said it should be operating by the end of February.

The flare will be used to burn off methane gas, which is produced in the landfill by decomposing garbage, during times when the methane-to-electricity system at Arbor Hills is shut down. Arbor Hills is under scrutiny by the MDEQ and the federal Environmental Protection Agency as management works to improve ways of controlling foul odors from the landfill that waft into surrounding neighborhoods.

Bad smells in the area led to more than 500 documented complaints from the public in 2016.

Scott Miller, a district supervisor for the MDEQ's air quality division, said the flare will be a step toward better controlling landfill odors.

"They're kind of working on system-wide improvements, and this is intended top be a short-term assistance," Miller said.

The flare will be able to process up to 3,000 cfm, or cubic feet per minute, of gas. Miller said the flare will have a "substantial flame" that will be visible in the surrounding area when active.

There are three flares at the landfill now, Miller said, but two are enclosed and none of the three are as visible to the public as the new flare will be.

Advanced spokesman Joe Kohn said the new flare is expected to be in use through the end of the year. It will be located south of Six Mile and just east of Chubb Road.

See more: No new or expanded landfills in county plans

The MDEQ's approval of the flare comes about two weeks after Advanced closed a deal with Republic Services Inc. to purchase the landfill's gas-collection system and the closed eastern portion of the landfill.

Kohn said he could not disclose the sale price. He said Advanced's purchase of the gas-collection system will make odor-control efforts at Arbor Hills easier.

"It is important for minimizing instances of odor and ensuring that the landfill gas from Arbor Hills is directed efficiently to create energy for the community," Kohn wrote in an email. "Our sole motivation is for these purposes — so that we can properly maintain the landfill that we operate, and to fulfill the commitment we made to our community to do it right."

Miller said the purchase will give the MDEQ a single point of contact — Advanced — for odor issues, suggesting that will make oversight more efficient.

Republic's departure leaves only Advanced and Fortistar Methane Group, which owns a four-turbine plant that turns the methane gas into electricity that's sent into the DTE Energy power grid, at Arbor Hills.

Fortistar's turbines, Miller said, can normally handle all the methane generated at Arbor Hills and are typically operating at least 80 percent of the time. But when they have to be shut down, for maintenance or mechanical problems, or at times when DTE can't accept power from the turbines into its grid, flares are used to burn off the gas.

Other odor-control measures that are underway or planned for this year include the replacement of 22 existing gas wells, five new wells, new piping for the collection system, a new 5,000 cfm flare, a new 550,000-gallon leachate tank, improvements to the existing leachate system and new coverings on parts of the landfill.

A plan to expand Arbor Hills was dropped last summer, but Advanced is expected to seek an expansion at some point in the future. Washtenaw County announced earlier this month that it will not be including an expanded landfill in an update of its solid waste plan, and that any expansion or any new landfill would require amendments to that plan by the county's solid waste committee.

Arbor Hills —  totaling 337 acres but with a landfill "footprint" of 294 acres, part of which is closed — accepts nonhazardous household and commercial waste. Ninety-eight percent of it, according to Kohn, comes from Wayne, Washtenaw, Oakland and Macomb counties.

A press release from the MDEQ said the agency continues to conduct inspections at Arbor Hills and monitor air quality in the area. More information is available on the MDEQ website: www.michigan.gov/deq.

Advanced has also published a website, www.arborhills.info, that provides information on odor-control efforts and accepts complaints that are automatically forwarded to the MDEQ.

mjachman@hometownlife.com

734-678-8432

Twitter: @mattjachman