SWANA Western Regional Symposium

March 31, 2025

At the SWANA Western Regional Symposium

SWANA Western Regional Symposium will naturally feature SCSers talking landfills! We hope to see you at these sessions.

L’ is for Landfill Redevelopment – From Golf Courses to Graveyards, Adventures in Landfill Redevelopment with Vidhya Viswanathan and Ray Huff 

Landfill redevelopment transforms sites into valuable community assets, such as parks, solar farms, or warehouses, addressing environmental concerns and supporting sustainable land use. This presentation explores the benefits of redevelopment, emphasizing environmental, community, and financial advantages. It also addresses technical, financial, and regulatory obstacles, with strategies for overcoming them through stakeholder collaboration, using case studies to highlight lessons learned.

• Landfill Redevelopment as a Resource Management Opportunity: Redeveloping closed landfills into sustainable spaces such as parks, solar farms, and warehouses provides valuable community assets while addressing environmental issues and supporting sustainable land use.
• Environmental and Community Benefits: Repurposing landfills enhances surrounding areas, improves infrastructure, and supports long-term post-closure care, offering both environmental and community advantages.
• Challenges in Redevelopment: Successful landfill redevelopment faces technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles that require careful planning and execution to overcome.
• Collaboration is Key: Effective redevelopment depends on collaboration among landfill owners, regulatory agencies, consultants, and contractors to navigate challenges and promote sustainable practices.
• Case Studies for Learning: Reviewing successful and unsuccessful redevelopment proposals provides valuable lessons and insights into common factors contributing to successful projects.

Landfill Construction for Integrated Gas Systems with William Haley and Evan Guignon

With ever-increasing regulations pushing more and earlier methane capture, including during landfill filling, how can we design and construct our landfill cells to allow the integrated gas collection and gas collection infrastructure to be built alongside our landfill cells? This presentation will cover regulatory requirements for cell construction and gas capture and how landfills can be designed and constructed to allow the gas collection system to work in tandem with the landfill leachate collection system. We will cover several examples of integrated cell/gas collection systems and delivered performance since installation.

Explore the full list of sessions from SCSer’s at the SWANA Western Regional Symposium, we look forward to seeing you! Register today!

• Pat Sullivan – “Current State of the Regulation of Composting Facilities under Air Quality Programs”
• Michelle Leonard – “Regional Food Recovery Hubs”
• Eric Martig and Victoria Evans – “Can I Get Credit For That? presented by Victoria Evans and Erik Martig”
• Srividhya Viswanathan and Ray Huff – “‘L’ is for Landfill Redevelopment – From Golf Courses to Graveyards, Adventures in Landfill Redevelopment”
• William Haley and Evan Guignon – “Landfill Construction for Integrated Gas Systems”
• Lauren Romanazzi – “Are You Going to Eat That? A Crash Course in Kitchen Conservation”
• Phil Carrillo and Melissa Russo – “Advancing Drone Technologies for the Solid Waste Industry: Safer, Smarter, and More Efficient Data Collection”

March 26, 2025

At the SWANA Western Regional Symposium

Current State of the Regulation of Composting Facilities under Air Quality Programs with Pat Sullivan

Composting facilities are becoming increasingly regulated across the country, particularly for air quality permitting requirements. It is important to know where these requirements stand in the various jurisdictions in the U.S., so facility developers can properly plan any new facilities or expansions.  Further, estimating air emissions is an integral part of the air permitting process, and many of the emission factors currently in use, and being prescribed regulatory agencies, are dated and based solely on data from open windrow composting.

The proposed presentation would include a survey of how compost facility air permitting is presently handled in various states and local jurisdictions across the country with focus on the western U.S.  The types of information to be covered would include whether air permits are required and under what circumstances, how emissions are regulated and whether they are considered fugitive or not, how ancillary equipment is permitted (e.g., grinders, windrow turners, etc.), whether controls are required and what levels of control are deemed necessary, what is best available control technology (BACT) for composting, and if the agency has any specific rules for composting.  The presentation will include a summary of the current state of emission factors for composting.

As part of the presentations, more detailed air permitting information would be supplied for several example air jurisdictions in California, including the Bay Area AQMD and San Joaquin Valley APCD.  The examples would cover the range of complexities from the most stringent air permitting requirements to the simplest and most basic requirements.

The attendees to this presentation will learn about:

• How compost facilities are regulated in different jurisdictions in the western U.S.
• The key air quality issues that must be addressed to get permits for composting operations.
• The types of air requirements that can be imposed in permits.
• What are best management practices and BACT for emissions reductions?
• Case studies that illustrate examples of how several jurisdictions handle air quality permits for composting.
• The emitting sources at a compost facility.
• The effect feedstocks can have on emissions.
• The test methods in use and general costs.
• The difference in emissions by compost technology.
• The control technologies in use and expected emission reductions.
• The major pollutants emitted by compost facilities.

Can We Get Credit for That? with Victoria Evans and Erik Martig

To reduce GHG emissions to meet climate goals, numerous strategies encourage lowering the carbon intensity of operations and supply chains. Here, Victoria and Erik answer the question of ‘Can we get carbon credit for that?” by addressing offsetting and insetting projects applicable to waste related commodities. They focus upon compost and biochar providing relevant examples for both offsetting and insetting. Insetting involves directly reducing emissions within the company’s own operations and value chain. Victoria and Erik will provide examples of carbon accounting quantification for both project types.

Explore the full list of sessions from SCSer’s at the SWANA Western Regional Symposium, we look forward to seeing you! Register today!

• Pat Sullivan – “Current State of the Regulation of Composting Facilities under Air Quality Programs”
• Michelle Leonard – “Regional Food Recovery Hubs”
• Eric Martig and Victoria Evans – “Can I Get Credit For That? presented by Victoria Evans and Erik Martig”
• Srividhya Viswanathan and Ray Huff – “‘L’ is for Landfill Redevelopment – From Golf Courses to Graveyards, Adventures in Landfill Redevelopment”
• William Haley and Evan Guignon – “Landfill Construction for integrated Gas Systems”
• Lauren Romanazzi – “Are You Going to Eat That? A Crash Course in Kitchen Conservation”
• Phil Carrillo and Melissa Russo – “Advancing Drone Technologies for the Solid Waste Industry: Safer, Smarter, and More Efficient Data Collection”

March 19, 2025

Advancing Drone Technologies for the Solid Waste Industry: Safer, Smarter, and More Efficient Data Collection at the SWANA Western Regional Symposium

Remote monitoring and control (RMC) is revolutionizing how the solid waste industry collects, processes, and visualizes critical data. With a fleet of FAA-licensed drone pilots nationwide, RMC is at the forefront of developing drone services that enhance operational safety, improve efficiency, and optimize data management processes. By leveraging cutting-edge drone technologies and GIS-based data assessment tools, the waste management industry can streamline remote data collection and decision-making processes.

This presentation, Advancing Drone Technologies for the Solid Waste Industry explores how drone technologies are reshaping industry practices, offering solutions that reduce operational costs, minimize environmental impact, lower health and safety risks, and improve overall site efficiency. Attendees will gain insights into the latest advancements in drone applications and learn practical strategies for integrating these technologies into their operations.

Specifically, attendees can expect to learn:

1. Various drone hardware and sensor technologies as well as other monitoring methods, including cost comparisons, for the following:
   1. Ground collection and instrumentation
   2. Satellite captures
   3. Manned aircraft
2. Techniques for optimal visualization and data assessment.
3. How drone technology compares to current regulatory compliance methods.

Meet SCSers, Phil Carrillo, National RMC Director/VP and Melissa Russo, Business Manager – Drones & GIS.

Phil is a systems integrator with over 24 years of experience in the operations and maintenance (O&M) of landfill gas (LFG) extraction and treatment systems. Phil has managed the design and installation of over 180 RMC systems for 100 clients. In addition to serving clients with customized design, installation, and support of SCS RMC solutions, Phil is an FAA Part 107 drone pilot and leads the development of advanced drone technologies and custom software applications that enhance data management and operational efficiencies for the solid waste industry.

Melissa Russo leads SCS RMC’s drone services. She is instrumental in managing the administration and installation of approximately 150 RMC projects and as an FAA-licensed drone pilot, she leads the development of SCS’s drone services, identifying the latest applications to benefit clients in optimizing remote data collection, GIS integration, and data management. Melissa has managed and performed numerous aerial inspections nationwide and internationally for purposes such as thermal surveillance, methane leak detection, topographic mapping, stockpile calculations, aerial 2D imagery, and 3D mapping. She is responsible for integrating GIS with drone-collected data to enhance field data collection and analysis, enabling more precise and actionable insights for clients.

Explore the full list of sessions from SCSer’s at the SWANA Western Regional Symposium, we look forward to seeing you! Register today!

• Pat Sullivan – “Current State of the Regulation of Composting Facilities under Air Quality Programs”
• Michelle Leonard – “Regional Food Recovery Hubs”
• Eric Martig and Victoria Evans – “Can I Get Credit For That? presented by Victoria Evans and Erik Martig”
• Srividhya Viswanathan and Ray Huff – “‘L’ is for Landfill Redevelopment – From Golf Courses to Graveyards, Adventures in Landfill Redevelopment”
• William Haley and Evan Guignon – “Landfill Construction for integrated Gas Systems”
• Lauren Romanazzi – “Are You Going to Eat That? A Crash Course in Kitchen Conservation”
• Phil Carrillo and Melissa Russo – “Advancing Drone Technologies for the Solid Waste Industry: Safer, Smarter, and More Efficient Data Collection”