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9/9/08 <br />C. Feasibility Study Proposal <br />Memorandum <br />The concepts of sludge incineration or digestion at GRE appear to open an opportunity which <br />could potentially benefit the City of Elk River and GRE in both short and long term. To our <br />best knowledge, the City of Elk River is perhaps the only City in Minnesota where its <br />municipal WWTP sits right next to such an incinerator. <br />To further evaluate these two concepts, several environmental permitting .issues, operational <br />issues and fmancing issues must be addressed. GRE's current incineration permit only allows <br />the plant to burn municipal wastes. Adding municipal biosolids may require modifications to <br />the permit. The construction of anaerobic digesters at GRE may require a new permit. It could <br />also affect the City's WWTP permit. <br />The injection point of the liquid biosolids needs to be evaluated to minimise the exposure of <br />GRE's operators to the liquid biosolids and to diffuse the liquid inside the incinerators evenly. <br />The costs of pumping facility at the WWTP and piping from the WWTP to GRE incinerator <br />or digesters must be evaluated. <br />It is our recommendation that the City of Elk River authorizes a feasibility study on the <br />WWTP Biosolids Incineration or Digestion at Great River Energy. The recommended scope <br />of the study includes: <br />1. Projection of WWTP biosolids for the next 20 years. <br />2. Identify pending improvement needs for biosolids handling at the WWTP if the <br />City continues its land application for its WWTP biosolids. <br />3. Review applicable regulations and permit requirements with the MPCA for <br />incinerating sewage sludge or digesting sewage sludge at GRE. _ <br />4. Provide information to GRE for their evaluation of the anaerobic digestion of <br />municipal solid waste using sewage sludge. <br />Evaluate the pumping facility at the WWTP, the options of piping routes from the <br />WWTP to GRE and the injection points at the incinerators or digesters. <br />6. Evaluate the level of biosolids treatment required at the WWTP prior to <br />incineration or digestion at GRE. <br />7. Provide cost analysis on the options of biosolids incineration or digestion at GRE <br />and the option of land application. <br />8. Discuss the funding options. <br />9. Develop an implementation plan and a project schedule. <br />The estimated engineering fee for the feasibility study is $25,000. Upon authorization, we <br />could complete the study in 3-4 months. <br />2 <br />