HECO Engineers’ Phil Bandy attended the Idaho Solid Waste Association (ISWA) Fall Conference in Kennewick, WA on September 11 –12, 2019. The conference was his first interaction with members of the Idaho Solid Waste Association and provided an opportunity to interact with Solid Waste professionals from local governments throughout the state of Idaho as well as Solid Waste consultants from Idaho and Montana.
The purpose of the association is to share knowledge and practices in the solid waste area, provide a voice for solid waste managers in the state, and to study and discuss current and future laws, rules, and regulations. The Association is very progressive in their efforts to work with policymakers and regulators in the State of Idaho in regard to Solid Waste matters.
The conference was held in Kennewick, Washington, to provide members the opportunity to visit and observe operations at both a large regional landfill and a municipal landfill. The large landfill was the Roosevelt Regional Landfill, operated by Republic Services and located in Klickitat County Washington, in the Horse Haven hills just north of the Columbia River. This facility receives solid waste via rail and trucks from Washington, Alaska. The Roosevelt landfill has a significant process that harvests methane gas from the landfill and provides it to the PUD to be converted into 20 megawatts of electricity. The City of Richland Horn Rapids Landfill was also visited. This facility has a significant green and bio-solids composting facility that provides as final product to commercial greenhouses. Similar to the Roosevelt Landfill, the Horn Rapids Landfill collects landfill gas, processes the gas and converts it to renewable natural gas.