Members of Chatham-Kent Council have just days left to decide whether to approve a proposed waste to energy project.
Plans for an anaerobic digester on Bloomfield Road in Chatham, a public-private partnership with Greenfield Global, will come before council Monday night for a final, definitive vote on whether or not to move forward.
The project has been in development since 2021, and will process industrial organic waste that would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill, and turn that waste into renewable natural gas and fertilizer.
The $160-million plant would be located at 175 Bloomfield Road, replacing a parking lot north of the ethanol plant.
So far, the municipality and Greenfield Global have invested $8.5 million into the project between them. If approved, a total of $16 million will come from the municipality, $24 million from Greenfield Global, $60 million from upper-level government funding, and debt at $60 million.
The plant is expected to eliminate the need for roughly $25-million in capital costs for the Chatham-Kent PUC, generate new tax revenue, and create as many as 30 new full-time equivalent jobs and construction spin-off.
Mayor Darrin Canniff says it makes financial sense.
“The beauty of this project is by investing $16-million, the PUC saves $25-million in other investments that we won’t have to do,” Canniff explained. “The beauty as well is that we save $650,000 of operating costs annually. Just by making this investment, we save more than the investment. We would make that investment decision all day long.”
However, Canniff says funding commitments from upper levels of government come with strict timelines.
“The federal and provincial governments are giving loans for this project to the company that we’re investing in, but they need to know that we, as a municipality, are committed in this. If we don’t commit to it, the government’s going to look at reallocating those funds to anther investment.”
Some neighbouring landowners have raised concerns about long-term environmental effects not only for residents but farmland in the area. Chatham-Kent’s Chief Financial Officer, Gord Quinton, said any potential hazard is already present.
“We already have a sewage plant, we already have the ethanol plant,” Quinton said. “What we’re doing is a better environmental process. That sludge is being dried in a field, the field behind the plant. Instead, putting that in an underground pipeline as a liquid over to the new plant. This plant is totally enclosed, so there’s no odour escaping.”
Monday will be the ninth time council has discussed the waste to energy project over the last several years.
If council votes in favour of moving forward, construction would start in early spring 2027, taking an estimated 18 months, and the plant should be commissioned and operational by late 2028.