There are no off-the-shelf landfill gas collection and control systems (GCCS). Rather these highly engineered components are configured precisely to tailor to each landfill’s needs. With intricate designs, these flexible high-dollar infrastructure systems take operators into the future to adapt to changing regulations around emissions and the evolving waste streams that affect gas production.
Building the right system and effectively forecasting requires a master plan, aka a road map. Your master plan not only maps a path forward, keeping operators on a solid footing by informing them on exactly what gas collection and destruction equipment to buy, when to buy it, and how to size it; they can serve other useful purposes.
“Over time, it’s not unusual for landfill operators to see symptoms of problems surface, whether emission exceedances or odor complaints. When we analyze the situations, the problems are most often caused by gas collection and control system deficiencies. We can avoid these deficiencies by working toward a facility master plan from the beginning. Then with major expansions or over, say, five years, we update the plan. “So, suppose you do not have currently have a master plan in place. In that case, we recommend preparing one to prevent what should be a planned event like flare installation from becoming more expensive problems,” says Vidhya Viswanathan, PE, an SCS Engineers Vice President.
Engineer and colleague to Viswanathan, Maura Dougherty, PE, echoes: there are powerful cost savings in a master plan. “This is a tool to layout where the site’s headed so that the equipment you are installing in the near term is relevant to what you will need down the road. Otherwise, you could end up installing then ripping out millions of dollars of infrastructure and having to start again.”
Modeling: where the site will produce gas and how much it will produce
Several metrics go into the model, which contributes to gas generation: waste tonnage per year and content of the stream, with close attention paid to changes in the waste stream, among others.
The beauty of your master plan is that it provides a framework to fall back on, with operators able to adjust the numbers to determine how they impact the model and, ultimately, if they need to make adjustments to the GCCS. It’s proving especially instrumental as landfill operators take in more types of wastes and ramp up for state regulations such as California’s SB1383 that ban landfilling organic waste (the largest contributor to landfill methane production).
Master plan schedule: plays a critical role as operators build out cells
It helps prevent bottlenecks during the permitting process through cell launch. And can serve as a financial planning tool.
Viswanathan explains: “Equipment production can take six months, and permitting can sometimes take up to 18 months. So, it becomes important to have a good sense of timing to free up capital for exactly what is needed, when it is needed.
You leverage your master plan to estimate design needs and costs based on how many standard cubic feet per minute of gas you expect. You figure out what you need in the way of length and size of pipe, number of wells, blowers, even flares, and how frequently components will need replacement.”
The data also serves as a budgeting tool beyond guiding field spending decisions. The information that informs the master plan also provides capital expense information to your financial modeling and economic analyses. The more information you have, the more accurately you can determine tipping fees to get a larger return on investments ─ useful when making a case to city councils for budget approval.
It takes a team
Not long ago, Dougherty worked on a landfill-gas-to-energy facility for a site that had yet to develop collection infrastructure to support it. There was a lot of work to do; it was to be a large project. To start, she created a five-year plan, then set to work on a 25-year master plan to take her client further. But first, Dougherty brought every professional into the room who might touch on the project.
“We had to consider what would be most effective from design, operational, and safety perspectives. And there were a lot of engineered pieces, so we had to make sure they would fit together and function well to accomplish this,” she says.
The team worked from a spreadsheet that tracked each part and decision, and Dougherty had every player involved in the process check it whenever they were ready to take another step. “It’s how we can plan out to prevent potential problems. For example, we were discussing the blower design. We learned that one of the vendor’s components would pressurize at a level, creating a potentially dangerous situation in this scenario. We could proactively engineer around the potential problem.
By the time we were ready to begin construction, we had a thoroughly vetted plan and buy-in from the whole team on the final design. We were confident it was safe, efficient, and would meet site-specific needs for years to come,” Dougherty says.
Viswanathan, Dougherty, and their SCS colleagues often team for projects, as they have similar yet different perspectives working on multiple sites and bring that collective experience to the table. “What’s exciting about working on landfill gas systems is that even though there are universal tenants of engineering designs, every site is unique,” Dougherty says.
“We’ve seen different scenarios month to month, year on year. So, collectively we’ve seen any number of conditions that may require more nimble engineering or responses on the ground. Teaming makes us stronger and better able to achieve.”
Keeping the plan and your goals in sight
When operators have a master plan in place and do routine design and construction, keeping that plan in sight, the payoff is a system that serves them well and costs less. They can prepare early for capturing their gas, use the plan to install gas collection infrastructure on a timely basis, and help guide them through post-closure.
When we think of farming, most of us think of fresh air, big skies, and acres of open land. One of the oldest industries is transforming to meet the increasing demand for commercially grown produce, wine, hemp, and cannabis with emerging agriculture odor management strategies.
Agricultural commerce brings jobs but also a few unwelcome odors. Hemp farms have distinct odors, vineyards spray elemental sulfur smelling of rotten eggs on wine grapes, and cannabis facilities can smell at different stages of plant growth. Even a farm growing cut flowers, when fertilized, will have a measurable smell.
Air Quality
A wine’s aroma is usually floral, citrus, or earthy, and Thanksgiving Day is the smell of home and hearth. However, getting these agricultural products grown and processed can sometimes be smelly. Many environmental technologies are being adapted for use in agriculture. Some are the result of industrial risk management and even landfill technologies for controlling odors and maintaining good air quality. As with landfills, they work best when designed for a specific site with site-specific wind conditions and site-specific distances from the nearest neighbors.
Hemp and cannabis growing facilities, both indoors and out, get odor complaints, so operators plan ahead to manage them. Odor intrusion for facilities coexisting in dense urban areas or com-mingled with other industries nearby tends to get more complaints, where the odor source is more complicated to pinpoint. On larger tracts, greenhouses, and small farms, air-misting systems or air blocking vegetation are more common.
“We can assess the potential concentration (odor strength) using known chemical surrogates emitting from cannabis. However, this approach has considerable weaknesses since many of the odor-causing compounds are difficult to detect at concentrations near their odor detection thresholds,” says Paul Schafer of SCS Engineers. “The ratios of emitted compounds are variable based on cannabis strain and time in the plants’ lifecycle, drying/curing/processing method, and varying atmospheric chemistry following emission.”
Some proposed cannabis greenhouses filing for a permit use an internal carbon filtration system to prevent fugitive pot odors from becoming a neighborhood nuisance. This indoor odor-control system would replace outdoor air-misting systems used by some greenhouse operations and commonly at landfills. The outdoor systems neutralize smells by changing the molecular structure of escaping vapors and work best when designed to work with air patterns. They are useful when there is a larger buffer zone because odors typically rise or flow in patterns.
Production hubs on larger acreage, even property utilized for agriculture for decades, require remediation. Many firms use modern greenhouse structures encompassing hundreds of thousands of square feet with processing plants. Schafer explains “As an odor and air monitoring expert and environmental engineering consultant, my job is to assess how various environmental technologies work under specific conditions to these companies and at times to the public. We use and investigate specialized technologies for industrial or agricultural use because they require specialized odor reduction, are safe, and can be successfully utilized to manage air quality and odors.”
As farming, businesses, and housing coexist across the nation, SCS’s water, soil, and air management teams are tweaking environmental technologies to help communities and new-age farmers remain good neighbors. Schafer who is the firm’s Ambient Air Monitoring expert puts it this way, “As engineers and consultants, we help communities and industry thrive together.”
Stormwater Management
Farmers or growers strive to include more ethical and sustainable growing practices, such as higher standards for water use and purifying their wastewater for reuse. As urban areas grow and farmland shrinks, stormwater management is essential to help new-age farmers operate sustainably and meet growing stormwater regulations that protect water supplies and the environment.
These aren’t the only greenhouses we work in.
The proven sustainable environmental solutions SCS Engineers offers to the agricultural, construction, extraction, manufacturing sectors, and municipalities help them attain their cleaner operating goals. As an environmental consulting and construction firm, we produce measurable technologies and programs that capture and reduce more greenhouse gases for private and public clients than any other environmental firm in the Americas.
The San Diego Business Journal named two SCS Engineers professionals among the Top 50 Influential Women in Engineering for 2022. The Journal recognized Vidhya Viswanathan and Jennifer Morton for their career achievements and status among San Diego’s top women in the engineering field. Both women have advanced their careers with award-winning projects for their clients, value their involvement in industry associations, and serve as thought leaders in environmental engineering.
“We congratulate Vidhya and Jennifer on this outstanding recognition,” said Pat Sullivan, SCS senior vice president. “In addition to being leaders at SCS, both women have a proven track record advancing the environmental engineering field for all engineers and especially students and girls aspiring to become engineers and geologists in the future.”
As a Vice President and the Southwest Director of Engineering, Vidhya Viswanathan leads the firm’s solid waste engineering operations in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. Viswanathan spent the last several years at SCS broadening her client base in the Southwest and expanding her expertise from solid waste and environmental engineering to include renewable energy, recycling, and organics management. In addition to leading engineering operations in the Southwest, Viswanathan leads SCS’s strategic initiative on composting systems and facilities. Viswanathan is active in solid waste and renewables industry associations and has won awards for her projects as a rising young professional.
Jennifer Bauer Morton is a licensed professional geologist working in the environmental consulting industry for over 16 years, supporting commercial real estate transactions and site cleanups. As a geologist, Morton has supported numerous assessment and remediation projects at contaminated properties throughout Southern California. She has worked with environmental engineers to develop remediation systems used to clean up soil and groundwater and has developed site mitigation plans which help to keep the community safe from contamination. Morton also served as Vice-President and then President of the San Diego Association of Geologists and was the editor of Coast to Cactus: Geology and Tectonics, San Diego to the Salton Trough, a guidebook accompanying the group’s 2014 field trip.
About SCS Engineers
SCS Engineers’ environmental solutions and technology directly result from our experience and dedication to industries responsible for safeguarding the environment as they deliver services and products. For more information about us, please visit the SCS Engineers website, or watch our video to see what we can do for your community.
Careers in Environmental Engineering, Consulting, Technology, and Operations – Join the finest environmental team in North America.
Co-Authors Joseph Duckett and Jeffrey Pierce argue that we should “Hold It” long enough to follow facts and science before accepting environmental misconceptions. History shows popular beliefs about environmental hazards and health risks – alarmist or dismissive – are sometimes wrong.
We recommend their new book, Hold It! The Case for Hard Thinking, Honesty and Humility when Assessing Environmental Health Risks. It’s the #1 new release in Amazon’s Pollution Engineering category. Both authors take an objective look at some of today’s and yesterday’s most controversial environmental topics.
You can read a review here and buy the book on Amazon.
SCS Engineers has built an impressive history, set of accomplishments and qualifications in designing, building and operating Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) facilities. SCS creates the RNG by removing almost all other gas constituents except the methane. These other constituents include carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), sulfur compounds, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), siloxanes, oxygen, nitrogen, and waste.
Leaders such as Jeff Pierce of SCS Engineers employ decades of energy systems expertise to analyze and evaluate the effects of variations in processes and the parameters important to successful facilities. They model and evaluate complex systems and processes to evaluate plant performance. They account for project objectives and requirements while considering technical, business, energy, and environmental objectives.
Biogas recovery systems are feasible for landfills, large dairy, hog, poultry, and beef operations. In short, using science and facts to make sustainable decisions has a much greater impact on addressing climate change.
These are a few words to describe our 2022 Conrad Quality Award Recipients. Celebrating the accomplishments of these SCS employee-owners, the Conrad Award highlights the level of quality we seek as a company.
Click here to read about our colleagues.
Conrad Quality Focus Awards recognize SCSers for their sustained quality performance above and beyond what is required by their job. The Awards Program helps keep our attention on quality every day — something we all strive for to meet and exceed our clients’ needs and expectations.
The City Council of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, recently approved a four-year service agreement with SCS Engineers for comprehensive environmental solutions and technology supporting the Solid Waste Management Division and Lincoln Water System.
The contract provides professional engineering and technical support for the City’s two Solid Waste Management Facilities, located on Bluff Road and North 48th Street in Lincoln. Modern landfills such as these contain complex systems to protect the health of nearby communities and the environment. Lincoln’s Solid Waste Management Division uses SCS professionals’ expertise and proprietary software for air quality and gas collection and control systems (GCCS), operations, monitoring, and maintenance. These environmental services keep the landfills fully compliant with regulatory requirements while aligning with the City’s system performance goals and anticipated operational and maintenance activities.
The City is using SCSeTools® software designed for landfills to support managing the monitoring data to gauge operational health continually. The firm’s comprehensive environmental services include sampling and monitoring groundwater, stormwater at both facilities, and leachate analysis at the Bluff Road Landfill.
SCS assists with scheduled testing and reporting to federal, state, and local agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Nebraska’s Department of Environment and Energy, and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department. Primarily these public reports cover monitoring summaries, statistical analyses of analytical results, and review of emission sources, factors, and calculations associated with the GCCS. They also include greenhouse gas reports, estimates, Title V permit requirements and documentation, NPDES General Permit support, and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans.
Michael Miller, an SCS vice president and one of the firm’s environmental due diligence experts, said,” We’re privileged that the City of Lincoln entrusts us to partner with its professionals to maintain the landfills’ safe and efficient operations. The Solid Waste Management Division and Lincoln Water System support the citizens with essential services and the environment; we’re honored to assist.”
The City of Lincoln’s Transportation and Utilities (LTU) Department/Solid Waste Management Division manages all solid waste generated within its service area to protect the public’s health, safety, welfare, and environment. They do so cost-effectively and in compliance with its solid waste management plan, Solid Waste Plan 2040. The plan, updated in 2020 through a process facilitated by SCS Engineers, produces remarkably good results.
The City undertook a comprehensive residential and commercial recycling communication, education, engagement, and behavior change initiative.
Read more about Lincoln’s success and see results in this APWA article (March 2022 edition).
The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) recently featured Sam Rice of SCS Engineers in its monthly newsletter. Sam is a member of the SWANA Young Professionals (YP) group and also one of Waste 360’s 40-Under-40 winners this year.
Sam specifically focuses on developing remote monitoring and control (RMC), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and control systems to meet his client’s environmental management needs. These technology solutions help the waste industry reduce environmental and health and safety risks, reduce cost, and improve the quality of life for workers in the industry and the communities surrounding our waste facilities.
The secret to his success is listening to the client’s needs and using technology to address those needs. Some specific ways that he has impacted the industry are below:
Sam takes on his client’s goals as his own, then develops and implements solutions. His approach is to attack any challenges with vigor, identify and act on ways to help improve things and jump in to help others when the need arises. His inquisitive mind helps him quickly identify and remedy issues that our clients are having; this helps keep their critical infrastructure online and operating at its highest capacity.
Sam routinely mentors others and helps his coworkers understand new technologies because he truly wants to see his coworkers and clients succeed. For example, a project he managed won two industry awards in 2020: an Environmental Business Journal Technology Merit Award and an Inductive Automation Firebrand Award which he shares with his client and coworkers.
SCS promotes leadership and ownership at every career stage, providing you with consistent opportunities to grow and learn. We offer an engaging and supportive environment, whether you’re interacting with senior leadership, out in the field with clients, or attending events.
Leading our YPs is the Young Professionals Planning Committee (YPPC), organizing and hosting educational and social events, providing mentorship opportunities, skills and leadership development, and much more.
As an employee-owned company, we know that ownership makes a difference. When you and I succeed, we all thrive. Hence, the YPPC strives to build technically savvy leaders and teams using in-house software, experts, and solutions. With an ever-growing environmental firm focusing on stewardship, we all play a role. Just like Sam!
Consider a career at SCS Engineers – click here!
The Environmental Journal Recognizes Firms Annually for Business Achievement in Growth, Technology, and Innovation.
Environmental Business Journal® (EBJ), a business research publication providing business intelligence to the environmental industry, is honoring SCS Engineers with three Business Achievement Awards for its innovative technologies and environmental achievements in 2021.
EBJ is recognizing SCS with an Environmental Business Achievement Award for the firm’s scientists, engineers, and consultants producing technologies and creating sustainable programs that help run industrial operations and essential public services more efficiently. These solutions reduce greenhouse gases and environmental impacts while increasing worker safety. The agricultural, food processing, and manufacturing sectors find SCS’ technologies and sustainability programs valuable.
The firm’s environmental technologies are receiving recognition with two Information Technology Awards for SCSeTools® and the SCS Remote Monitoring and Control® (RMC) Drone Program.
SCSeTools is a data management platform built by landfill practitioners that helps capture more methane and reduce operational and compliance costs on one-third of the landfills in the U.S.
The RMC drones fly with cameras and technology support safer, cleaner operations for industry, energy, and waste management with real-time greenhouse gas detection, mapping, temperature readings, and volumetrics.
EBJ recognized SCS Engineers in previous years for its remote monitoring and control technology, composting solutions, commercial and residential land remediation, and renewable natural gas plants.
Jim Walsh, President and CEO of SCS Engineers, said, “Thanks to our clients, SCS Engineers has received these awards and industry recognition for research and technology innovations; our greatest reward is client satisfaction.”
“In a year of economic recovery in 2021 that still posed its own challenges, it is a testament to the resilience of the environmental industry and its leaders in business and innovation to have such a fine constellation of winners of the annual EBJ Awards,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Incorporated.
SCS Engineers will officially receive the EBJ Business Achievement awards at the Environmental Industry Summit XX this month.
Application Process for $275M in California Grants Opened Jan. 31
A couple of months ago, I wrote about the opportunities and challenges of getting brownfields back into productive use. There are certainly viable strategies for remediation of contaminated property that will make them safe for a range of developments. Of course, the cleanup costs are a significant factor in any project analysis. But the state of California is providing some assistance that could make more brownfield sites pencil out for redevelopment.
I am happy to report in this article that the passage of SB 158 by the California legislature provides $500 million in cleanup funding for brownfields. Approximately $270 million of that total is targeted for grants.
The California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) administers the Equitable Community Revitalization Grants funded through SB 158. On January 31 of this year, the DTSC started accepting full applications for these grants. The application window closes on April 4, 2022, with award announcements expected on May 31, 2022.
The DTSC gives the highest priority for grants in disadvantaged communities with significant housing needs.
$270 million is a big investment. The USEPA has a similar program, with typical funding for the entire country, of less than $100 million (https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-selection-151-communities-receive-665-million-brownfields-assessment-and). Since DTSC started accepting applications at the end of January, nonprofits, public agencies, municipalities, tribes, and private developers must act quickly.
Eligible entities may apply for ECRG grants for properties they own or control in high poverty areas with a CalEnviroScreen score of 75 percent or more for reuse. DTSC will also accept applications outside of the CalEnviroScreen score of 75%+ if the proposed reuse provides significant community benefit.
As I outlined in my previous article, it is important to have a risk management strategy that includes a thorough understanding of the environmental issues on the site and how those issues can impact your redevelopment plans and bottom line. Environmental and legal support experienced in identifying, anticipating, and managing risks on brownfields is critical to success.
There are an estimated 200,000 brownfields currently identified in California, many of which are useful for housing after remediation. Many of these sites are in the urban core and perfectly fit infill strategies for solving the housing crisis by reducing commute times and related greenhouse gases.
An example of such a project is COMM22 in San Diego, developed by BRIDGE Housing, in which SCS provided environmental oversight during remediation. COMM22 is a mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented development located at Commercial and 22nd streets in San Diego.
The site where COMM22 stands today was a former San Diego Unified School District vehicle maintenance and general maintenance facility. The site included leaking underground storage tanks and fill soils containing various metals, including lead.
After successful remediation, the parcel today hosts 211 affordable housing units, including apartments for low-income seniors (including HUD-subsidized units), supportive housing for youth transitioning out of the foster care system, and eleven townhomes for low- and moderate-income families.
Many more badly needed projects, like COMM22, could become a reality thanks to SB 158. If you have a brownfield in mind that fits the criteria or have questions about the grant application process, contact the Center for Creative Land Reuse (www.cclr.org). CCLR partners with the DTSC to give free assistance in applying for funding.
About the Author: Luke Montague is a Vice President of SCS Engineers and a Project Director. He is a Professional Geologist and licensed contractor with nearly two decades of experience in environmental consulting, general contracting, commercial and residential development, and property and asset management. He has performed and reviewed over 500 Phase I environmental site assessments (ESAs) and has completed subsurface investigations, human health risk assessments, removal action work plans, site remediation activities, geotechnical investigations, asbestos and lead-based paint surveys, and asbestos air monitoring.
Learn more about funding and land remediation here.
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