County May Study Using Landfill Gas for Energy

BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.com

Supervisors in July will discuss whether to launch a feasibility study of collecting and using methane gas emitted from the county landfill to generate energy, as opposed to simply burning it off.

As organic waste in the county landfill decomposes, it creates methane gas, a particularly strong greenhouse gas in addition to being dangerously flammable. Currently the county’s practice is to burn it off. County supervisors last week unanimously directed staff to scope out a study on the feasibility of instead collecting it to burn for energy, agreeing with Vice Chair Koran T. Saines’s (D-Sterling) push to have that discussion as soon as possible.

“We already are doing some great things on our energy plan. I think this is something else that we should look at doing,” Saines said. “I think we should continue on this process of being innovators and trendsetters in our energy strategy.”

Loudoun so far will not be pushing toward any bold new technologies, or even technologies new to the US—the county so far has shied away from some of the responses to a request for information about possible alternative energy projects. General Services Assistant Director Marc Aveni said of ten responses to that posting, one offered various technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the county,

Rivana approved

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Unusually, supervisors, who have final approval authority over development applications, have acted as cheerleaders for Rivana since before they saw the first application for it. County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) and Supervisors Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) and Sylvia R. Glass (D-Broad Run) appeared in a video advertisement for the project when it was first announced in 2021. Randall said she has been in meetings about the project since 2018.

That sentiment continued into the unanimous vote to approve the project on May 16. Glass said it would be “better than Reston Town Center.”

“This is a fantastic application before us today. I am thrilled to make the motion for approval of this development as revised, slated to be a world class-community, and will set up Loudoun for a more diverse economy and business tax base,” Glass said. “A lot of previous approvals and four dealt in various forms of hydrogen production.

“While these were all very interesting, they are complex technologies and not necessarily proven in the US, so we were a little hesitant to bring these forward to you,” he said.

The majority of responses, seven, dealt with using methane gas generated at the landfill for energy. Without specific information such as how much methane gas the Loudoun landfill generates, several responses estimated a cost of $20 million to $25 million to design and build that system.

The county could also realize some revenues from that project not only through the use of methane gas itself, but through selling greenhouse gas credits through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program. According to a county staff report to the board, those are traded “at what is currently a substantial monetary benefit,” and new EPA rules in the program expected later this year “may increase this benefit substantially.” However, the market is speculative and county staff advised caution.

They also advised supervisors against trying to pursue that kind of large project in this fiscal year, with the county budget and staff’s schedule already full. That would put the earliest funding available in July 2024.

County staff are expected to return to the July finance committee meeting with have existed at this parcel and I hope the Rivana developers are able to pull this one off, because I know there’s a lot of interest in this site already.” a discussion of the scope and cost of a feasibility study on using landfill methane for energy.

Letourneau said he wasn’t worried about the lingering issue of capital contributions.

“I think maybe in a different application that wasn’t of this significance, I would be more concerned about it, but I think when you look at the sum of everything that’s been offered to us, this is still a very good deal for the county,” he said.

“I don’t know when I’ve been so excited about voting for a project,” Randall said.

The land has been the site of several previous ambitious plans for development, including Dulles World Center and later The Hub. It was first rezoned to permit a high-density research and development park in the late 1980s. It was revived as the Dulles World Center in 2012, a project that included 1,265 homes and 1.75 million square feet of office. In 2018, plans were changed again when the county approved The Hub for the same number of homes with 250,000 square feet of office.

“Obviously one of the things we have to look at is how much… methane are we actually preventing, versus that amount of cost,” Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) said. “The cost-benefit analysis on something like this is really important, because that’s money that could also be spent in other areas of our energy strategy that may net more benefit.”

“The more I look at this, the more I look at the rate at which we are solving the greenhouse gas problem globally, I am more and more convinced that it’s going to take some pretty radical solutions,” Supervisor Michael R. Turner (D-Ashburn) said.

Loudoun County will have to do more to reach its own and the world’s climate goals. Using the landfill’s emissions is something contemplated broadly in the county’s energy strategy, but modeling based on that strategy so far shows Loudoun far short of its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Meanwhile, Dominion Energy’s 2022 Climate Report estimated current government policy and the utility’s plans lead to an estimated 2.1 degrees Celsius increase in global average temperatures, well above the 1.5-degree target of the Paris climate agreement to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change. n

Rivana at Innovation Station increases the number of homes by 114% and reduces the non-residential development by 20%, county staff noted.

The same night, supervisors also voted to hold a June 14 public hearing on setting up a Community Development Authority at Rivana. Under state law those authorities are political subdivisions separate from the locality, which can issue bonds to finance public infrastructure. However, the locality—Loudoun County—is not required to back those bonds, so they wouldn’t affect the county’s credit rating.

According to a county staff report, funding public infrastructure like roads, parking and trails through a Community Development Authority would mean the developer doesn’t have to finance that construction, instead focusing their funds on private development. The bonds may be repaid through revenues collected by the authority at those public facilities or by a special real estate tax levied by the county on that property, up to 25 cents per $100 of assessed value. n

COVID benefits

continued from page 4 coming for government services when they’re no longer able to be covered by insurance,” Health Department Director Dr. David Goodfriend said. “Additionally, the increased risk of food insecurity and economic insecurity resulting in this.”

Fernández said Loudoun has seen about a $1.3 million reduction in SNAP funding. She pointed out the impact of that funding cut is multiplied—U.S. Department of Agriculture research estimated every $5 of SNAP benefit spent generates as much as $9 in economic activity.

“There’s now not only a reduction of SNAP benefits going to families, but then we’re also seeing a reduction in economic drivers into our community,” she said. Now people who are no longer receiving those benefits are reaching out for help, she said, and county staff members are working to connect them to other services in the community such as nonprofits.

And the return of old requirements to get help, such as face-to-face interviews, could also chase some people out of the program who otherwise would qualify, Goodfriend said. He offered the example of families getting food assistance through the Women, Infants and Children program, which helps with feeding children up to five years old.

Those mothers may once again have to bring their children in for monthly check-ins—often difficult to arrange if they are working or have difficulty getting transportation.

“It is a significant barrier, so we do expect maybe a quarter or a third of our roles will come down just because folks will have to come back in person,” Goodfriend said. “…As money gets tighter in these households, people look for ways to feed their families, and so there’s always in a community people who are WIC-eligible but don’t take advantage of that service.” But he said that drop in enrollment could also be balanced out as people experience even more intense need.

To learn about getting help with child care, employment, food, medical care, housing and other needs, call the Loudoun County Information and Referral hotline at 703-777-0420 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or find more information online at loudoun.gov/5287/Information-Referral. Or to find help with food, visit loudounfeeds.org. n