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Talk About Tulsa => Other Tulsa Discussion => Topic started by: AJ on July 20, 2007, 03:20:46 PM

Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: AJ on July 20, 2007, 03:20:46 PM
Trash plant closing (//%22http://kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=131951%22)

The city wouldnt renew its contract and the company cant find suplimentals to bring in to keep the plant open. They've barely had enough trash the past few weeks to run one boiler. The plant will be torn down and the land restored back to what it was before the structure was built.

Personally, I think its a shame.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: Wrinkle on July 20, 2007, 03:27:21 PM
This is the best news since....well, I don't know when. Maybe since the Cubs won the World Series.



Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: Conan71 on July 20, 2007, 03:30:37 PM
Where did you read it would be knocked down?  I didn't see that anywhere in the story.

Personally, I don't know why they didn't try to contract with surrounding areas for waste disposal.  There are rail heads near or on the site which would lend itself to incinerating trash for other municipalities.  

The closing is just another twist in Tulsa's bizarre political landscape.  
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: RecycleMichael on July 20, 2007, 03:37:39 PM
They did try for suburb trash (insert your own joke here).

I introduced them to every trash hauler and elected official nearby. They just couldn't compete with the big haulers owning their own landfill and locked-in, long-term contracts...
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: AJ on July 20, 2007, 03:42:16 PM
It isnt published yet that it will be torn down. I know many people that work there and my livelyhood comes from a power plant. Thats the procedure when a power plant is no longer operational. It gets torn down.

They've been tring for several months to get contracts for suplimental trash. No offers of any.

Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: Wrinkle on July 20, 2007, 04:30:42 PM
Well, really now, don't you think the 'plan' was to bankrupt the thing so the City could buy it back for cents on the dollar? (with our money again)

Citi bunch is countering with a demo plan.
Perhaps it's in the contract to restore the site once it's life has ended, but that'd be a big switch of governing body-type contracts.

Tearing it down would be a big improvement to the local environment. However, in this case, it'd be destruction of evidence.


Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: RecycleMichael on July 20, 2007, 05:16:32 PM
What evidence?

I have been involved with the trash-to-energy plant since the beginning.

I protested the idea before it was built and then when I was a city employee they made me a tour guide out there.

Like many things, I can argue on both sides.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: sgrizzle on July 20, 2007, 10:04:52 PM
quote:
Originally posted by AJ

I know many people that work there and my livelyhood comes from a power plant. Thats the procedure when a power plant is no longer operational. It gets torn down.



My livelihood is also mildly related to power plants and know they don't get torn down just because they close. There are several closed plants still in existence. Many are "mothballed" with the hopes of refiring or selling it.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: patric on July 20, 2007, 10:40:33 PM
quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle

There are several closed plants still in existence. Many are "mothballed" with the hopes of refiring or selling it.


http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&q=United+States&ie=UTF8&ll=36.115623,-95.549877&spn=0.016571,0.029097&z=15&om=1
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: Chris on July 21, 2007, 01:32:28 AM
What am I looking at patric?
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: inteller on July 21, 2007, 07:44:34 AM
quote:
Originally posted by recyclemichael

What evidence?

I have been involved with the trash-to-energy plant since the beginning.

I protested the idea before it was built and then when I was a city employee they made me a tour guide out there.

Like many things, I can argue on both sides.



didnt we just finish paying the mortgage on that?  how come my bill hasnt went down?
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: RecycleMichael on July 21, 2007, 07:58:28 AM
The majority of the financing was paid for by commercial customers rather than residential customers. Commercial customers have seen their charges from the city go down around 70%.

There should be some slight reductions for residential cutomers coming soon. The TARE board has recommended a 7.5% reduction for the city council to approve.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: Oil Capital on July 21, 2007, 08:44:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by recyclemichael

What evidence?

I have been involved with the trash-to-energy plant since the beginning.

I protested the idea before it was built and then when I was a city employee they made me a tour guide out there.

Like many things, I can argue on both sides.



Why were you opposed to it?
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: RecycleMichael on July 21, 2007, 10:09:54 AM
I thought the money would have better spent building a recycling facility and boosting our recyclables collection.

I also did not like that burning trash caused some environmental problems, especially dioxins. The trash plant added pollution control equipment later that lessened this problem.

Trash usually doesn't harm us, it is just ugly and smelly. When you burn it, it becomes potentially harmful.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: perspicuity85 on July 21, 2007, 11:15:50 AM
What's up with the general lack of recyling activity in Tulsa anyway?  Is there still no curbside recycling pick-up?  If so, why not?

Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: TURobY on July 21, 2007, 11:29:34 AM
quote:
Originally posted by perspicuity85

What's up with the general lack of recyling activity in Tulsa anyway?  Is there still no curbside recycling pick-up?  If so, why not?



http://www.cityoftulsa.org/Environment/Recycling/CurbsideService.asp
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: bluelake on July 21, 2007, 11:51:30 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Chris

What am I looking at patric?



Blackfox  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Fox_Nuclear_Power_Plant
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: sgrizzle on July 21, 2007, 01:05:15 PM
quote:
Originally posted by patric

quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle

There are several closed plants still in existence. Many are "mothballed" with the hopes of refiring or selling it.


http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&q=United+States&ie=UTF8&ll=36.115623,-95.549877&spn=0.016571,0.029097&z=15&om=1



That one wasn't built, much less torn down.

Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: Conan71 on July 23, 2007, 12:51:08 PM
The boiler units are new enough in terms of water tube boilers that someone could come in, convert them to gas or bio-fuel burners, or a different type of bio-mass reactor and set up a small co-gen plant.  There might well be other purposes for the place yet.

As far as knocking it down, won't happen until the pigeons have laid claim to it for the next 20 years and everything has rusted to the ground assuming they don't find another use.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: patric on September 01, 2007, 10:45:05 PM
Judge Orders Landfill To Close
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A Tulsa County judge denies a request to keep a north Tulsa landfill in operation. According to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, District Judge Daniel Owens ruled that a permanent injunction calling for the closure of North Tulsa Sanitary Landfill will remain in full effect.

In July, Owens ordered the landfill to cease all operations and close. Attorneys for the landfill asked Owens for a modification of the July order and to allow the facility to stay open.

But Owens denied the request.

DEQ officials say the landfill hadn't been in compliance for several years.

The agency and the landfill entered a legally binding agreement that required the facility to submit an approvable plan to DEQ for construction of a new cell for waste disposal by August 28th, 2006.

That deadline was missed. Under the consent order, the penalty for failure to meet the deadline was to immediately shut down the landfill.
Title: Trash Plant Closing
Post by: AMP on September 02, 2007, 01:26:54 PM
First time I drove past these giant windmills in southwestern Oklahoma was last summer while I was doing come consulting work in that area.

Not as cool as the ones on the mountains in California, but quite a site to see on the plains.  Reminds me of an illustration from a Tom Swift book.

http://www.horizonwind.com/projects/whatweredoing/bluecanyon.aspx