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Highlands Today

Highlands Lands 1/3 Of State's Green Energy Money

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: February 2, 2008

SEBRING — Highlands County is likely to snag nearly one-third of the $10.5 million that

Gov. Charlie Crist convinced the Legislature to award in local-government grants for innovative recycling projects this fiscal year.

One hundred and forty cities and counties applied for these grants, officially called the "Fiscal Year 2008-09 Innovative Recycling/Waste Reduction Grants."

After reviewing all 140 applications, the state Department of Environmental Protection picked the top 33 projects based on merit.

The Legislature has appropriated $10.56 million for this grant program for fiscal 2008-09, a reduction from the $12.4 million allocated for this program the year before.

The 33 recommended grants total $10.5 million, so every grant in the top 33 is virtually assured of being funded.

DEP rated one of Highlands County's projects as the No. 2, or second best, in the state. This grant is for $1.65 million to pay half the cost of the county's new asphalt plant.

Despite heavy lobbying against this plant by the state asphalt pavers association, Highlands County commissioners voted in late August to borrow $3.3 million to buy an asphalt plant.

That plant, which should begin producing asphalt in late spring, will be on the county landfill and use methane gas – produced by rotting garbage – for the fuel and heat needed in the asphalt production process.

Without this project, the methane gas has to be vented and burned so that it doesn't explode. Recovering a waste by-product that would otherwise be discarded and turning it into an environmentally friendly, renewable, alternative fuel is the main feature of the project, according to Ken Wheeler.

Other Counties May Follow Highlands' Lead

Wheeler, the county's director of solid waste, proposed the asphalt plant, which will be the first in the state of Florida that is owned and operated by a local government. Wheeler reports that several dozen county engineers and road superintendents from throughout Florida are watching Highlands County's asphalt production project.

If it succeeds in reducing road paving and construction costs, Wheeler said, other counties and cities are likely to build their own asphalt plants.

Highlands County's second "innovative recycling" grant application scored No. 25 in DEP's top 33 grants recommended for funding.

That grant is for $1.7 million and also would use the county landfill's methane gas in a creative way to produce clean, renewable, non-polluting energy.

In that project, Wheeler said, the county will convert landfill methane gas into "natural gas pipeline-quality" gas which will be pumped into tanker trucks. Those tanker trucks will take the gas to the county's fuel depots, where it will be put into county cars, trucks and heavy equipment.

Running the county's cars, trucks and heavy equipment off this recovered and reconstituted gas will be cheaper than buying gasoline or diesel fuel, Wheeler said.

Combined, the two grants to Highlands County total $3.35 million.

Tallahassee Sending Big Bucks To Town

Highlands County has about one out of every 180 Floridians, or about about half of 1 percent of the state's population. With these two grants, the county would receive 31.7 percent of the state's "innovative recycling" grant money.

"This will cut the cost of the county asphalt plant in half," Wheeler said.

Grant applications for this pool of state money had to be submitted by Sept. 4, 2007.

The DEP released its ranking of the top 33 applications on Jan. 11.

On or before May 2, the Legislature must vote to allocate the grants.

Wheeler said the county should receive the money shortly after July 7, when the DEP is scheduled to send out the legal grant agreements to the cities and counties getting the money.

"Governor Crist has been pushing 'green energy' projects in Florida," Wheeler said. Both of the county's projects fit into Crist's "pro-green energy" polices, Wheeler said, "because they each take a waste product and turn it into a clean, cheap, alternative fuel."

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