Environmental Policy

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Detailed Overview:

Environmental compliance

Click here (updated June 2011, 348 KB)

Brief Overview:

Environmental Compliance

Below (updated June 2011)

ecomaine serves the solid waste needs of more than 40 municipalities in Southern Maine utilizing a waste-to-energy (WTE) power plant, single-sort recycling center and a 250 acre landfill/ashfill.  It monitors adjacent waters and air emission releases to assure that none of its facility operations adversely impact the surrounding environment.
All three ecomaine facilities are ISO 14001 certified for excellence in environmental management (the WTE and recycling center since 2002 and the landfill/ashfill since 2007). ISO, the International Standards Organization, headquartered in Switzerland, requires on-going semi-annual audits by an accredited registrar.  ecomaine is the largest publically owned and operated integrated waste management service in the U.S. to hold these certifications at its three facilities. 
Following is an overview of ecomaine’s environmental compliance activities; you can also see a more in-depth, scientific review and/or read relevant research.

Environmental Management System

ecomaine’s Environmental Management System (EMS) is based on the international standard ISO 14001 which recognizes environmental stewardship as part of ecomaine’s daily activities.  
The ecomaine EMS offers a mechanism for continuous improvement: to identify and evaluate ways to minimize its impact on the surrounding environment and to stimulate and pursue new discussions.  Projects have included a mixer/conditioner to treat fly ash, a reverse osmosis unit to purify boiler water and eliminate use/storage of chemicals (ie: NaOH, HCl) at the waste-to-energy plant, and establishment of routine cleaning of leachate collection lines at the landfill/ashfill. 
ecomaine continues to demonstrate the commitment and capability to fulfill its environmental policy through its Environmental Policy based on compliance, communication, continuous improvement and pollution prevention.

Air Quality

Waste-To-Energy

ecomaine maintains a high percentage removal rate of pollutants from emissions through use of state-of-the-art air pollution control technology (APCT). ecomaine aggressively monitors air emissions at the WTE from the combustion process and continuously measures criteria pollutants: carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate, known as opacity.  Annually, ecomaine tests levels of hydrogen chloride (HCl), particulate matter (PM), ammonia (NH3), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg) and dioxin/furans (D/F).  Examples of ecomaine’s air pollution control technology include:

• Electrostatic precipitators (ESP)
   This entails five ionized fields which, in conjunction with precipitator optimization systems (POS), control the electric voltage necessary to eliminate 99.9% of particulate from emissions and to eliminate 99% of metals, such as cadmium and lead.
• Activated carbon injection system
  With this system, ecomaine captures particles containing mercury and dioxin/furan, which are removed by the electrostatic precipitators.
• Spray dryer absorbers (SDA)
  The SDA includes lime slurry scrubbers that are extremely effective in neutralizing 80% of sulfur dioxide and 95% of hydrogen chloride from acid flue gases.
• Selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR)
  This system reduces 35-40% of nitrogen oxide emissions by injecting urea into the boiler , which breaks down NOx into nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water.  

Continuous Emissions Monitoring

ecomaine maintains the following monitors to measure emission concentrations:

• Continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS)  to measure Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2);
• Continuous opacity monitoring system (COMS) to detect visible particulate in emissions (opacity);  
• Continuous emission rate monitoring system (CERMS), which are flow monitors to measure mass emission rates of CO, NOx and SO2.  

ecomaine developed a quality assurance and quality control plan for the operation of its continuous monitoring systems which is reviewed annually. Two instrumentation and control technicians maintain and calibrate the monitors daily, which include primary and back-up CEMS and primary COMS and CERMS. In addition, ecomaine retains third-party consultants for monthly preventative maintenance, quarterly cylinder gas audits, opacity audits and relative accuracy test audits (RATA).

Annually, ecomaine performs compliance stack tests to evaluate the emissions from the WTE combustion processes, as required in the Title V air license. The stack tests include measurements for particulate matter, dioxin/furan, hydrogen chloride, ammonia and multiple metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury.  Annual emission reports are submitted to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP).  

 

Ash Characterization

Ash Types
     Bottom Ash:
         ecomaine’s waste-to-energy facility has “bottom ash” which is a residue by-product of non-combustible material that falls to the grates below the boilers. It is cooled in a “quench tank” and then pushed through an ash extractor onto a vibrating conveyor.
     Fly Ash:
         This is the finer, lighter residual material that is removed from the air pollution control system collected in the ESP hoppers and conveyed to a mixer-conditioner for treatment ; then, it is combined with the bottom ash on a
conveyor belt.

The combined ash is comprised in a ratio of 90% bottom ash and 10% fly ash.

The ash mixture, a non-hazardous material, is conveyed up an incline where it passes over a ferrous magnet to remove metal before it is placed in ecomaine dump trucks and transported to ecomaine's own landfill/ashfill facility just 2.5 miles away.

To confirm ecomaine’s combined ash does not contain elevated amounts of hazardous material (as defined by Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection regulations), the characterization of ash is subject to specific EPA ash testing. Each quarter sampling is required every four hours for a period of four weeks; totaling 672 sample collections annually.

ecomaine also performs a rigorous ash monitoring schedule using Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP).  To detect arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium and silver.  The long-term statistical summary for the TCLP metals at ecomaine have never exceeded the regulatory threshold for TCLP metals.

In addition to stabilization, ashfills have a distinct advantage over traditional landfills because the ash occupies just one-tenth the space, and using less space means our ashfill will be serving our needs far longer.  

 

Water Quality

ecomaine rigorously evaluates the quality of stormwater and surface water that surround all three of its facilities (as required by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection). ecomaine consistently demonstrates that operations at the waste-to-energy plant, ashfill/landfill facility, and recycling center do not adversely impact surrounding waters.

ecomaine is fortunate to be in the watershed of the Stroudwater River, to have a tributary which attracts wildlife, and to be abutted by a wooded path maintained by Portland Trails. Our mission is to protect this environment while providing our owner-communities with the waste and recycling services you - their residents - require.

Part of ecomaine's pollution prevention program addresses surface water runoff. It has an intricate sub-surface piping system that collects runoff and sends it to a sedimentation pond on the property, allowing pesticides to settle rather than flow into the river. It also takes simple preventative measures, such as sweeping paved areas daily and covering materials that might be exposed to rain.

Should there be any pollutants from the facilities entering surface waters, ecomaine will know:

• Water sampling sites have been strategically located to allow the tracking of an errant pollutant back to the source.
• Comparative sampling locations are established upstream and downstream from the sedimentation pond outfall, and
• Two more are located above and below the entrance of a tributary into the Stroudwater River.

Learn more about our landfill/ashfill stormwater control system.