At last, the untold story of ACC

Some stories, no matter how good or clever, never see the light of day. Here’s one we briefly considered for publication into today’s Daily News, but which became a casualty of sober second thought. Hope you enjoy, and take a look at the calendar as you read it.

By MEL ROTHENBURGER

Editor, The Daily News

A company that vowed to take its controversial gasification plant elsewhere is having second thoughts.

Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp. president Kim Sigurdson told The Daily News on Wednesday he expects to apply for an amendment to his environmental permit to change the fuel for the plant from creosote to slaughterhouse waste.

“It became very clear to me through the consultation process that the main issue was creosote,” Sigurdson said. “We can adapt the technology to accept just about anything as fuel, and there’s a big need in B.C. to dispose of slaughterhouse waste.”

He said he’s been in discussions with the Energy and Environmental Research Centre at the University of North Dakota, which developed the original design, and has been told it can be easily adapted.

The ACC president said the big advantage of his technology is that it can incinerate all types of slaughterhouse waste, including brain-stem tissue, also referred to as “specific risk material,” associated with mad-cow disease.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Sigurdson said. “It’s not like composting. With gasification, all the waste is rendered inert.”

A composting facility that would have processed slaughterhouse waste, except for SRM, was rejected in Westwold last year after residents there protested.

Acknowledging he should have consulted earlier with the public on his original plan, Sigurdson said he won’t wait as long this time, and has already set up a hotline.

Anyone with questions about the revised plan can phone 250-374-7467.

According to Sigurdson, the EERC has already done preliminary tests at the university, and adapting the creosote gasifier designed for Kamloops would take only a few weeks.

It would produce syngas that would generate electricity similar to what the creosote plant would have done, he said. ”It would hardly smell at all.”

If the demonstration facility works out, it could be expanded to take city garbage as well. Sigurdson hopes to meet with Mayor Peter Milobar about that soon.

“We’d have to add several more gasifiers,” he said, “but I don’t see that as a problem, as long as we get additional government funding.”

Will City taxpayers be on the hook for part of the cost? “That remains to be seen, but I’m getting good vibes.”

Asked why he would forge ahead in the face of public opposition expressed at a recent Kamloops Chamber of Commerce forum, he commented,  “I didn’t get the impression people would be against other types of fuel.

“They had a lot of questions, but I think a lot of people there were in favour of the concept in general.”

He said it’s even possible the plant could handle nuclear waste.

“If this thing works out, we’re hoping to move our office (ACC’s office in Winnipeg) out of the basement of our home and onto the main floor.”

Despite the ease of adapting the technology, he said he expected it to take some time to put federal and provincial funding in place and to get political buy-in.

“I’ll be conferring with Terry Lake on Facebook later today but I understand he’s fine with it as long as it’s not in the Fraser Valley.”

Sigurdson said the plant should be up and running on the Mission Flats site by next April 1. “I think that would be an excellent date for a grand opening,” he said.