The plant started operating in 1972 and was originally designed primarily for trash disposal, explains Lukens. But the oil embargo of the early 1970s led to an energy crisis and he says the plant became an alternative energy source. We are one of the oldest resource recovery stations in the United States, he adds. Before truck owners unload their waste inside the plant, the vehicles are weighed and charged a fee per ton, says Ed Egenrieder, water quality technician. Inside the plant is a vast tipping floor area where the trash is dumped.
Trash covers the entire floor and is piled as high as a two-story building.
Egenrieder says operations employees work 12-hour shifts and burn 760 tons of trash per day. Egenrieder explains that a crane lifts the trash from the gargantuan pile and places it into hoppers that feed into the boiler. The boiler runs a firebox temperature of 1,700 degrees. As garbage is fed into the boiler, hot air blows through the large tank and the trash is burned. Inside the boiler are water-filled tubes.