Long-awaited landfill gas plan could fuel city revenue

A proposal to convert the city’s potent landfill gases into renewable energy, and potentially raise millions of dollars of new revenue, should be released within the next few months.

City officials now expect to propose a contract with Integrated Gas Recovery Services by the end of this year or early next year.

If city council approves, that would see Winnipeg become a raw landfill gas supplier several years after work began to create such a deal.

The facility would reduce the need for traditional fossil fuels by providing a substitute, said Michael Gordichuk, the city’s manager of solid waste.

“Essentially, it’s identical to natural gas, which is the fossil fuel that we use today in heating our buildings,” he said.

The reuse of landfill gas would replace the city’s current practice of flaring — burning as it’s released — the vast majority of methane produced at Brady Road landfill.

The flaring process converts the extremely potent gas into less harmful carbon dioxide.

Methane produced at the landfill as waste decomposes would instead be converted to create a new energy source, providing renewable natural gas without the emissions needed to extract new supplies of that fuel.

“It’s better to burn the garbage that your grandparents (threw away) in … the ‘70s, instead of fossil fuels that have been in the ground for millions of years,” said Gordichuk.

In 2022, the city estimated it could earn about $10.5 million over 20 years by selling the gas. At the time, Integrated Gas Recovery Services was expected to cover the $22-million capital cost for the project, along with $2.5 million per year in operating costs. No cost estimate was released for how much revenue the company would earn.

Gordichuk said all of the initial estimates are outdated and new ones are being calculated. He said the city still does not expect to pay any upfront costs to set the process up.

City council directed municipal staff to work out the deal with IGRS in March 2022, though the city just recently obtained key provincial approval to move it forward, Gordichuk said.

The lengthy process to develop the contract was partly because it is the first of its kind in Manitoba, which required regulatory changes and a new agreement with the provincial government, he said.

A revised agreement is now slated to see the city take ownership of the landfill gas, and any possible emission credits linked to it, which the province previously owned, Gordichuk noted.

Coun. Ross Eadie, chairman of the water and waste committee, said he believes consultations on the project, legal aspects of the deal and the pandemic all extended the time spent working on the long-awaited contract.

“There’s work to do and it’s complex,” said Eadie (Mynarski).

A longtime supporter of the project said he’s anxious to see the final plan.

“This is something where the city’s going to make money, the private sector partner is going to make money and it’s good for the environment … Yet we still seem to be moving slowly on it. I find that frustrating,” said Coun. Brian Mayes, a member of council’s water and waste committee.

Mayes (St. Vital), a former water and waste chairman, noted council sought out initial options to convert landfill gas in 2021.

“Let’s expedite this … to get this thing in the ground,” he said.

The plan would see IGRS construct, operate, maintain and own the gas-converting facility. The city would sell raw landfill gas directly to the company, which would then convert the gas and sell it within Manitoba, Gordichuk said.

If council approves the contract, he expects it will likely take at least 24 more months to actually get the operation going.

“We’re hoping to have the facility commissioned in the latter half of 2028. If we can get it done sooner, we will,” said Gordichuk.

At this point, the city plans to use the TransCanada pipeline to distribute converted landfill gas, though some details are still being determined.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga