American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. roughly 2,300 air miles southwest of Honolulu and about 2,700 miles north of Australia. The largest and most populated island in American Samoa is Tutuila, which is located the territory’s historic capitol of Pago Pago. The territory is home to the world’s largest tuna cannery. Population growth has been dramatic and the island’s energy costs have increased substantially in recent years. The American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) is responsible for solid waste collection and disposal in the territory with landfilling being the primary mode of waste disposal. However, limited available land on the main island due to volcanic topography limits the long-term use of landfilling as the island’s sole waste management tool. The relative isolated location of American Samoa and the instability of world oil markets have prompted ASPA to look at more environmentally and economically sustainable means of solid waste management. As an outgrowth of its research, ASPA submitted and received a technical assistance grant from the U.s. Department of the Interior to conduct an extensive waste composition study and EfW feasibility study to examine the advantages and disadvantages of efW for American Samoa. The results of these studies have been completed by SCS on behalf of ASPA, which is currently taking steps to permit and procure a 2.0 megawatt, modular efW facility that will go online in 2012 as part of a public private partnership. The lessons learned by SCs and ASPA during the course of the investigations are illustrative of the types of long-term, waste management and energy decision-making that many small communities will have to undertake to attain viable and sustainable alternatives.

The management of municipal solid wastes (MSW) in Puerto Rico is becoming increasingly challenging. In recent years, several of the older landfills have closed due to lack of compliance with federal landfill requirements. Puerto Rico is an island community and there is limited space for construction of new landfills. Furthermore, Puerto Rico residents generate more waste per capita than people living on the continental US. Thermal treatment, or waste to energy (WTE) technologies are therefore a promising option for MSW management. It is critical to consider environmental impacts when making decisions related to MSW management. In this paper we quantify and compare the environmental implications of thermal treatment of MSW with modern landfilling for Puerto Rico from a life cycle perspective. The Caguas municipality is currently considering developing a thermal treatment plant. We compare this to an expansion of a landfill site in the Humacao municipality, which currently receives waste from Caguas. The scope of our analysis includes a broad suite of activities associated with management of MSW. We include: (i) the transportation of MSW; (ii) the impacts of managing waste (e.g., landfill gas emissions and potential aqueous run-off with landfills; air emissions of metals, dioxins and greenhouse gases) and (iii) the implications of energy and materials offsets from the waste management process (e.g., conversion of landfill gas to electricity, electricity produced in thermal treatment, and materials recovered from thermal treatment ash). We developed life cycle inventory models for different waste management processes, incorporating information from a wide range of sources — including peer reviewed life cycle inventory databases, the body of literature on environmental impact of waste management, and site-specific factors for Puerto Rico (e.g. waste composition, rainfall patterns, electricity mix). We managed uncertainty in data and models by constructing different scenarios for both technologies based on realistic ranges of emission factors. The results show that thermal treatment of the unrecyclable part of the waste stream is the preferred option for waste management when compared to modern landfilling. Furthermore, Eco-indicator 99 method is used to investigate the human health, ecosystem quality and resource use impact categories.

Performance Track is a voluntary environmental partnership between the government and participating U.S. facilities of all types and sizes. The Environmental Protection Agency governs and operates the Performance Track program in conjunction with the state environmental agencies. The goal of Performance Track is to provide environmental leadership and pollution reduction at its source. This presentation will provide insight on how Montenay Bay operates according to its Performance Track commitments. Montenay Bay is a waste-to-energy facility in Panama City, Florida. The presentation will describe how Montenay Bay qualified for the Performance Track program, and how it positively influences their normal operating decision making processes. A representative from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be available for the remainder of the presentation time to answer any questions conference members might have concerning the EPA Performance Track program.

The Southernmost Waste-to-Energy Facility, is a 150 ton per day, stoker fired, mass burn facility located on Stock Island in the City of Key West, Florida. The facility is owned and operated by the City of Key West and is categorized as a Small MWC, Class II facility under the Emission Guidelines for Existing Small Municipal Waste Combustors, 40 CFR 60 subpart BBBB. In order to reliably comply with the requirements of the small MWC regulations, the facility air pollution control trains were required to be retrofitted to include acid gas control and improved particulate control through the installation of scrubbers and baghouses. Additional controls for metals including mercury may have been added in order to assure compliance with these regulations. Other facility upgrades including combustion enhancements may have been required to assure compliance with allowable carbon monoxide limitations of the Small MWC regulations. The need for the air pollution control retrofit project represented a major expenditure for the City of Key West. Faced with a decision regarding its long term future waste handling and disposal methods, the City examined various options for future solid waste handling and disposal including the option to proceed with retrofitting the waste-to-energy facility and relying on waste-to-energy as a long-term major component of Key West’s solid waste handling and disposal plans. Alternatively, the City explored the option of building a transfer station, either privately or publicly operated, and contracting the hauling and disposal of the City’s waste to a private firm. The transfer station option would require a conversion of the waste-to-energy facility to a transfer station through a major demolition and reconstruction project. The City also considered available alternative technologies such as gasification for example. In order to help the City sort through the many issues associated with the solid waste handling and disposal options, a Technical Advisory Committee was formed consisting of engineering and legal consultants, City commission members, and other City representatives. Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers, as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee, was responsible for estimating the costs associated with the design, construction and operation of a waste-to-energy facility air pollution control retrofit project. This paper describes the facility and discusses the decision making process of the technical advisory committee and the ultimate decision of the City Commission to close the Southernmost Waste to Energy Facility. The paper includes the requirements for closure of the facility and discusses how the City arrived at its final decision.