ST. MARYS — To help put the finishing touches on its biomass system, the Elk County Solid Waste Authority has received a $30,000 grant from West Penn.
The $30,000 will go towards purchasing equipment to upgrade the biomass system that the authority took ownership of after it acquired the former Advanced Recycling Equipment building at 850 Washington Street in St. Marys.
The authority is looking to use the biomass system to provide all of the heat for the new recycling center.
However, when the authority acquired the biomass system, it was just a test system that had no controls and needed several upgrades to make it usable for the authority’s purposes.
The authority received a grant to have the system evaluated by an engineering firm to determine what the system would need to heat the building. That evaluation provided the authority with a list of upgrades that the system would need, and the cost of those upgrades was a little more than $30,000.
During Tuesday’s authority meeting, Bekki Titchner, Elk County’s solid waste and recycling coordinator, said the authority has received a grant to cover 95 percent of the costs to implement the upgrades.
To fuel the biomass system, the county entered into a contract with Delullo Trucking Corp./Woodbed Corp. to provide wood chips to heat the facility.
In addition to receiving the grant money to upgrade the biomass system, the authority is continuing to make progress on several other projects to retrofit their new facilities.
Most of the lights in the building have been swapped out for LED lights that were put on motion sensors. Officials said the change addresses some lighting deficiencies and should help the authority with the cost of electricity.
Further, the authority is expecting to receive a sorting line system in the middle of December. The authority is also looking to have drains installed in the facilities sometime during November.
The facilities had no drains prior to the authority purchasing the building, however, drains will be important for the authority as cars are likely to bring a lot of debris into the facility during the winter months as the authority has built a drive-through option into its new recycling center.
Finally, a finished paved pad at the facility will allow the recycling center to receive rolloff containers from throughout Elk County.
Previously, the containers were taken to other facilities as the authority could not handle the contents at the old Stackpole Complex facility.
Titchner estimated the ability to handle the containers will bring at least 100 tons of additional material into the center throughout the upcoming year.
The authority is currently looking to start a bidding process to have contractors bring the containers to the recycling center.
Titchner said on Tuesday that she hopes partnerships can be formed with the municipalities in the future to eliminate the need to have a third-party bring the materials to the center.
Dave Stubber, solid waste enforcement officer, said that many of the rolloff containers are reaching the end of their life, adding the authority could look into purchasing trailers that the municipalities could haul to the center.
