Anne Arundel County?s trash is about to become Fort George Meade?s newest source of energy.
County Executive Janet Owens and Fort Meade Installation Cmdr. Kenneth McCreedy agreed Monday to negotiate a contract that will allow the military base to purchase all of the methane gas produced at the county?s Millersville landfill.
Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is produced by the decomposition of trash buried at the landfill. The county burns off an estimated $200,000 in excess gas per year to avoid explosions within landfill cells. When methane is collected and cleaned of impurities, it can become an alternative source of natural gas and is sometimes called biogas.
Owens said Prince George?s County uses methane from its landfill to power its detention center, but the location of the Millersville site made it too complicated to use the methane for any Anne Arundel County buildings.
“The installation will be acquiring a source of inexpensive, renewable, reliable energy, and the county will no longer be generating greenhouse gases,” McCreedy said. “I hope this will be viewed as a prototype that will motivate other landfill operators, and I hope other garrison commanders will think about it.”
McCreedy said the military base will likely use the gas from the landfill to power boilers at new buildings being constructed and to accommodate additional personnel expected to relocate to the base in the next five to 10 years.
McCreedy said the base will save money on energy costs by purchasing gas from the landfill at below-market prices.
The county and Fort Meade will have one year to negotiate an estimated 20-year contract for the sale of the gas. According to an agreement signed Monday, Fort Meade will be responsible for constructing a landfill gas pipeline to transport the gas to the fort, as well as construction of any necessary processing equipment.
Anne Arundel County will use the money from the sale of the gas to further improve the landfill and fund other waste-management projects.
