| Mason Conservation District Urban-Agricultural Community Digester Project |
The Mason Conservation District is applying for building permits and is finalizing the design for an anaerobic digester to be sited at the Mason County Waste Transfer Station on Eells Hill Road. Most of the required project financing has been secured, and construction is currently planned for Summer, 2009. This digester is designed to accept agricultural and municipal organic wastes, and will convert these wastes into renewable energy (biogas) and fertilizer. The digester will initially serve the Shelton and Hood Canal areas (approximately 20 tons per day), but will have reserve capacity to serve an expanded geographical area in the future (30 tons per day maximum operating capacity). The purpose of this digester is to divert polluting organic wastes from our surface waters to be processed into useable products. The benefits of this project include:
The digester will be able to process the following organic wastes:
The current plan is to pipe the biogas fuel produced by the digester directly to the State Corrections Center heating plant. Final discussions for this arrangement are ongoing with the Washington State Department of Corrections. Mason Conservation District has received a grant from the Washington Conservation Commission, and the project is being considered for supplemental funding from the State Energy Freedom Fund. The digester operation will produce revenue which will finance most of the initial construction costs and all future operating costs. The digester is designed by Environmental Energy & Engineering Co., located in Olympia. Watch this webpage for updated information as this project nears construction! For more information on this project, contact Rich Geiger, District Engineer, or John Bolender, District Manager
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