Ansonia Investor


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Ansonia Investor

Ansonia Investor

  • Thanks to your wonderful “for sale” and “garage sale” section. I have used both successfully. Keep up the great reporting.
  • From someone who used the unclassifieds: "Thanks to DJ we rented [out] the house!"
  • We understand your site really has the best coverage for our county.
  • Darke Journal is a great website. We kept up with the weather and all the local news on a recent trip. Keep up the GREAT WORK.
  • Keep up the excellent work with the site. Its refreshing to have such a glowing forum for thought and info in the area!
  • I'm a huge fan of Darke Journal - thanks for providing this website/email information for the community.
  • I think we can all agree, this is the best site of its kind for Darke County by far.
  • Your web site has been a great advertising place for our programs ... we always receive lots of calls. Thanks for all you do.
  • Must say I think you have done a really great job with the site.
  • Your web site is such a benefit to the community.
  • ......the journal ROCKS!!!!!
  • Thanks for all your help. Darke Journal is the number one source for Darke County community news.
  • I have truly enjoyed keeping up with the Darke County news, but the constant reporting on conservative causes is totally inappropriate.
  • Darke Journal is sure on top of everything.
  • I really appreciate you running and bumping the garage sale ad over the last few days. My son and I had a really successful sale, and your site was a big help in making that happen (many people told us that they heard about it through DJ).
  • I am a huge fan of your website. It brings more useful information than the newspaper does and even though I am attending college and am away from home, I still check out your website about once a day to keep up on local events.
  • I just love your website. It's better than any newspaper or TV program. Keep up the good work.
  • I like the DJ because it just gives the facts pure and simple. I also like to read what the readers think. You keep up the good work & you will grow!
  • I am so glad that I found this site. It is so nice to have such an upbeat & unbiased Darke County news. I look forward to checking it each day. I just found it this month. Plus, I can feel free to voice my concerns on issues. Great web site!
  • When I turn on my computer in the morning, I check the weather and Darke Journal before anything else. Thank you for the pix & info on this site. It's nice to know what's going on in our great Darke County.
  • You are doing a great service and this is a great media outlet!
  • It just gets better and better! Truly, the 'mix' is what makes it so good for all readers.
  • DJ = nice guy, but should relinquish his website duties.
  • This is a wonderful site! I am so glad there is a place in this community where people can voice their opinion about issues. In the past for many years this community seems to be run by so called political people with others hiding in the brush waiting to inform their leaders of those who disagree with an issue on hand, just so they can point them out and try to ruin their life. Again I am so glad finally, an average Joe can make an Anonymous posted opinion and not fear that they will be pointed at or looked down for stating how they feel. Thank you D. J.
  • It’s better than most of the media available in and around Darke County.
  • The web site has had steadily increasing viewership over the last year or two and, at least in my opinion, has become a major player in getting news and commentary to Darke Countians.
  • Your site is not a freaking jungle.

Ansonia’s sewer sludge has been bothering Board of Aldermen president Stephen Blume for years.

The city shells out hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to get it trucked out and disposed of.

So about two years ago, Blume started investigating other options with Mayor James Della Volpe and members of the city’s Energy Improvement District Board.

On Tuesday, Blume unveiled the result of the lengthy research: A plan to transform sewer sludge into energy.

How?

Blume’s plan involves building an “anaerobic digestion” facility on about 2 acres behind the city’s waste water treatment plant on North Dvision Street.

Inside the facility, large tanks would house microorganisms and bacteria, which would eat up the sewer sludge and other waste and turn it into a biogas that can be used to power turbines for energy.

Click here for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Anaerobic Digestion 101” fact sheet.

Blume said the facility would be built by a private company and wouldn’t cost the city anything.

The Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to sign a letter of intent with New York company Greenpoint Energy Partners.

The letter isn’t a contract: It simply allows Greenpoint Energy Partners to start looking for funding for the project — estimated at about $15 to $20 million.

Greenpoint representative Chris Timbrell said the project would be funded from two places:

  • State and federal grants
  • Private investors

Timbrell said an investor from Brooklyn is interested in funding the project. He declined to name the investor.

Greenpoint would makes its investment back by selling energy to Ansonia and by charging corporations and restaurants to dump their food trash at the site.

Blume said Ansonia would benefit by getting a discounted rate for energy and by saving money on sewage removal costs — which Blume estimated run about $500,000 a year.

Blume said the city could save another $300,000 a year on the discounted energy.

Ansonia plans to lease the land Greenpoint, or whichever company is ultimately chosen, for $1 a year, if the company pays to build and operate the plant.

“Now we have a chance to use part of that waste stream along with food wastes to create renewable energy and turn those liabilities into assets, while becoming a green community,” Blume said Tuesday night at the Board of Aldermen meeting.

Mayor James Della Volpe urged the board to approve the letter of intent.

“We have an opportunity to become one of the most innovative and greenest communities,” Della Volpe said.

Blume said the plant will eventually employ 15 people.

“I think this is the biggest thing to happen to Ansonia. Ever,” Blume said Tuesday. “I can’t think of anything that’s as important as this. Every city in the state will take notice of us now.”

Food Waste Mixture

The plan will use a mixture of human waste and food waste to create the biogas, Blume and Timbrell said.

Many municipalities in the country already use anaerobic digestion to break down sewage waste, and some farmers use it to break down their cow and animal manure, according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.

But only in recent years have municipalities started mixing in food waste, according to the EPA.

The added material is better for creating the biogas, and helps get rid of waste that would otherwise end up on a landfill, Blume said.

And, Greenpoint can charge companies, schools and hospitals to drop off their food trash.

Why is food waste part of the plan?

Restaurants, schools and large companies separate their food trash and pay to have it disposed of at existing landfills, Blume said. Ansonia hopes to charge less to have the companies drop off their food waste at the new plant.

The plan is preliminary. If Greenpoint is chosen as the company, it would still need land use approvals before moving forward with any plans.