• Specialty

  Air Quality
  

• SECTOR

  Energy / Power
  Municipal
  

• TYPE

  Permitting / Compliance
  

• CLIENTELE

  Local Government
  

• TIMESPAN

  2001-Present

• LOCATION

  North Andover, MA

Wheelabrator North Andover

SERVICE:

Monitoring Municipal Waste Combustion for Board of Health

DESCRIPTION:

As part of an ongoing program for the North Andover Board of Health (BOH), Tech Environmental has developed and implemented a plan to monitor and evaluate various aspects of the Wheelabrator North Andover Inc. (WNA) facility and its operations. This monitoring plan includes the preparation of an annual report to describe the results and conclusions of the program to Town officials and the general public. Tech has been working for the Town of North Andover and providing environmental expertise on the oversight of the WNA facility since 2001.

The WNA facility includes two municipal waste combustors (MWCs) outfitted with air pollution control equipment. Each combustor has the capacity to burn up to 750 tons per day of municipal solid waste from northeastern Massachusetts. In addition to the ability to reduce the volume of MSW through combustion, the facility can generate 40 megawatts of electricity in its capacity as a waste-to-energy plant.

Tech reviews reports and confirms that test results are within emission limits, witnesses testing programs, and provides an objective review of the facility in reports and presentations to the Town and the Board of Health in order to assist the Board in performing its oversight of the WNA facility. Tech has been closely following issues related to protecting the public health of the residents of North Andover, including tracking the facility's emissions of dioxins and mercury and ensuring that the continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) are functioning properly to ensure that emissions are below any relevant health guidelines.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Key Points

• The Town of North Andover's Board of Health needs to ensure that a municipal waste combustion facility located in the town will not cause harms to public health.
• Tech Environmental developed and implemented a plan to monitor the facility's operations on behalf of the Board of Health.