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One of the most important laws we have to protect our environment is the Clean Air Act, originally passed in 1970 and then amended in 1990. One result of the amended Act was a new set of air emissions standards for waste-to-energy plants. These became effective at the end of year 2000. The Clean Air Act Amendments are fully described at http://www.epa.gov.
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Faced by this demanding timetable, a highly aggressive construction schedule, and the need to keep our plant open during construction for our community customers, we completed this retrofit between April 1999 and September 2000 at a cost of $35 million. The result is one of the United States' most advanced waste-to-energy plants.
We installed numerous systems and technologies to meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act:
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A urea system, or "Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction" technology, that converts nitrogen oxides -- a cause of urban smog -- to harmless nitrogen and water.
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Spray Dryer Absorbers, or "Scrubbers," that spray a watery mixture of lime into the hot exhaust. This lime neutralizes acid gases, just as we use lime on our lawns to neutralize acidic soil. Scrubbers also react with and trap other products of incomplete combustion, and help capture more mercury in the exhaust.
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Fabric Filters, or "Bag houses," that work like giant vacuum cleaners, with hundreds of fabric filter bags that clean the air of minute traces of soot, smoke, and metals. |
Carbon Injection systems that blow charcoal dust into the exhaust gas to absorb mercury. Carbon injection also controls organic emissions such as dioxins. |
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A new, enclosed Lime Prep Building that stores and readies the lime for our scrubbers. |
An updated Continuous Emissions Monitors, or "CEMs," that provides the ability to record and monitor plant emissions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. |
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Once we completed construction, we conducted a rigorous process to fine tune the facility and its new systems. This was followed by formal emissions testing, monitored by federal, state, and local regulators. Finally, early in 2001, we completed the process of testing and starting up our Continuous Emissions Monitors.
The data reported by these monitors is available to regulators and to the public, in order to ensure that the plant operates within its permit limits. Compliance is a complicated analysis. With its advanced air quality control and monitoring system now in place and operational, Wheelabrator North Andover strives to comply with each and every one of these permits on a round the clock basis.
Wheelabrator North Andover Completes Rigorous Emission Testing Program
In record time and against numerous odds, Wheelabrator North Andover completed on February 16, 2001 the testing
protocol that signaled the completion of its air pollution control retrofit project.The major design
and construction effort, required for compliance with the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, took us only (20)
months to complete - far short of the 30 months typically required for a project of such magnitude.
As a result of the retrofit, the plant now has new state-of-the-art systems and technologies in place. The rigorous,
week long testing procedure monitored levels of mercury, cadmium, lead, hydrochloric acid, dioxin, ammonia, particulate,
opacity, and visible emissions. Results will be published in early spring.
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