The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George (FFGRD) will be marketing emission offsets created from the landfill gas collection system at the Foothills Boulevard Regional Landfill and will receive a $525,000 advance to get the project going.
The money will come from the Green Municipal Corporation (GMC), which will retain all the revenue from emission sales until the advance is paid back - a process expected to take two to three years.
After that time, revenue from the sale of the offsets will flow directly to the FFGRD.
The FFGRD has been working on the initiative for years, administrator Jim Martin said in a news release, even since a gas collection system was installed at the landfill in 2002.
Legislative changes in recent years helped pave the way, Martin added.
"It's a long and rigorous process to get to the stage we are at now, but we are very pleased that our landfill gas collection system is not only reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions into our air shed, but will now become a revenue source for the regional district to offset future capital costs at the landfill," Martin said.
The system collects methane gas created as a by-product of garbage decomposition and is combusted into greenhouse gas. Methane is considered to be 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide,
An estimated 15,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are collected and combusted annually at the landfill.
"We are excited that we have been able to achieve this and add to our revenues for the landfill," said FFGRD director and environment and parks standing committee chair Terry Burgess.
"Now that we have addressed the marketing of emissions, the board will be exploring options for the beneficial use of the landfill gas later this year."
