Agency open to sending waste to plasma arc

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency board “has kicked the ball farther down the field” on a Florida firm's plan to build a power plant in Marion that will zap residential garbage into energy using a technology called plasma arc, board chairman Tom Podzimek says.

The field, though, remains a swampy one.

Nonetheless, Podzimek called it an important step that the board, on a 7-0 vote, agreed on Tuesday to the concept of diverting garbage and of giving up much of the revenue it produces for the Solid Waste Agency so that garbage, now placed in the agency's landfills, can be turned into energy by Plasma Power LLC, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., if not some other firm.

However, the measure agreed to Tuesday stops far short of what Jim Juranitch, president/CEO of the company, told the board his company needs if it is to move ahead with the Marion project.

Specifically, Juranitch told the Solid Waste Agency board that he needed a more-strongly worded agreement in which the board agrees to divert 500 tons of garbage a week and a per-ton fee over 20 years to the power plant project, a commitment that he said was required to secure funding from investors.

He's put the price tag of the plant, which will run largely on natural gas with a mix of syngas created by zapping garbage, at between $105 million and $175 million.

The board resolution passed on Tuesday, though, would require Plasma Power LLC to first secure necessary permits to construct and operate its proposed power plant before getting a commitment on agency-controlled garbage.

However, Juranitch noted that securing permits requires extensive engineering and design work, which he said can cost between $5 million and $11 million. Requiring permits before agreeing to provide garbage to the facility won't allow the company to raise money to do the work to secure the permits, he said.

In fact, one of the agency's board members, plasma-arc proponent Charlie Kress of Marion, asked the board to commit to providing Plasma Power with 500 tons of garbage a week for 20 years so the company could push ahead to secure funding.

The board, though, voted Kress's proposal down, 6-1.

Board member Brent Oleson of Marion, a Linn County supervisor said he needed more time to study the ramifications of Kress's proposal. Five other board members - Podzimek, Chuck Swore, Cedar Rapids council member, Pat Ball, Cedar Rapids' utilities director, Mark Jones, Cedar Rapids' solid waste manger, and Mark English, assistant Cedar Rapids fire chief - had a variety of concerns, including questions about committing garbage to the Plasma Power project for 20 years when it was possible a less-costly technology might come along before then.

Podzimek noted that the board had received a request about 18 months ago from an ethanol plant that had a plan to use the agency's solid waste to make ethanol.

He said the board now needed to see if there were competing proposals for the garbage so the board could figure out what was best financially and environmentally for the agency and all the jurisdictions in the county that are joined by agreement in the agency's operation.

Podzimek noted that the agency now takes in $38 a ton for garbage from municipalities and private haulers, though the cost to landfill the garbage is only about $20 a ton, he said. The extra $18 per ton goes to pay for agency programs like handling hazardous waste and electronic waste and community education. Maybe the per-ton fee collected from municipalities by Plasma Power should be $20 per ton, not $38 per ton, which the company suggested a month ago, Podzimek said.

Plasma Power's Juranitch said Tuesday's action by the Solid Waste Agency board to show a willingness to divert its garbage to the company was a step in the right direction.

But he said his company only had a “finite amount of time” to get its project in Marion moving, and he emphasized to the board that no investor would commit to providing project financing if the community wouldn't support the project with its garbage.

On a side note, Juranitch confirmed that a lawsuit filed in Florida in December against Plasma Power by a former business partner has been dismissed by a judge there.