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- ERMU reached an agreement with <br /> Waste Management for the land, and <br /> for undertaking the engineering, <br /> operation, and maintenance of the <br /> site. Sherburne County funded the <br /> project with the condition that an <br /> educational center be added to the <br /> - - facility. The Saint Cloud Times <br /> .�, reported that the Elk River landfill, <br /> which served Sherburne, Stearns, <br /> and Benton counties, "could soon be <br /> producing enough energy to power <br /> Electric Generation Facility at the Elk River Landfill 1,500 houses." The plant's three <br /> (Elk River Municipal Utilities) generators were anticipated to <br /> convert the naturally produced <br /> methane into nearly 19.7 million kilowatt hours of energy each year. According to ERMU <br /> general manager Bryan Adams, who was instrumental in this project's development, it"makes <br /> sense for Elk River Municipal Utilities . . . because it involves using a resource that would <br /> otherwise go to waste."134 <br /> By 2002, after four years of planning, the generation plant was up and running, exemplifying a <br /> successful collaboration between the private and public sectors. The 5,100 square-foot plant <br /> housed three 800-kilowatt generators with room to add a fourth. The generators ran on landfill <br /> gas, mainly methane and carbon dioxide from decomposing garbage. The gas was collected in <br /> twenty-nine wells, compressed to remove moisture, filtered, and delivered to the sixteen-cylinder <br /> engines. A composite liner of clay, <br /> polyethylene lining, and sand --` <br /> contained the gas and liquids <br /> produced as the waste decomposed. <br /> To trap the gas, the landfill was <br /> capped by a geomembrane of <br /> compacted clay, soil, and <br /> vegetation.135 <br /> The facility ran ahead of expectations ! <br /> by 2004,producing 102.174 percent �_OA= <br /> of its projected output. This led to the -- <br /> decision to install a fourth generator <br /> in 2005. When the new engine was <br /> added, the plant was projected to <br /> Landfill gas-to-electric engine room <br /> generate enough electricity to cover (Elk River Municipal Utilities) <br /> 134 Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Minutes,November 14,2000;Kirsti Marohn,"Landfill to Harvest <br /> Methane for Energy,"Saint Cloud Times,November 30,2000. <br /> 135"The Facts:ERMU's Landfill Gas Electric Generating Plant,"at ERMU archive. <br /> 36 <br />