Nevada Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Reference Case Projections

Appendix G. Waste Management
Overview
GHG emissions from waste management include:
FINAL Nevada GHG Inventory and Reference Case Projection
CCS, July 2007
• Solid waste management – CH 4 emissions from municipal and industrial solid waste
landfills, accounting for CH 4 that is flared or captured for energy production;
• Solid waste combustion – CH 4 , CO 2 , and N 2 O emissions from the combustion of solid
waste in incinerators or waste to energy plants; and
• Wastewater management – CH 4 and N 2 O from municipal and industrial wastewater
(WW) treatment facilities.
Inventory and Reference Case Projections
Solid Waste Management
For solid waste management, we used the U.S. EPA SGIT and the U.S. EPA Landfill Methane
Outreach Program (LMOP) landfills database 89 as starting points to estimate emissions. The
LMOP data serve as input data to estimate annual waste emplacement for each landfill needed by
SGIT. SGIT then estimates CH 4 generation for each landfill site. Additional post-processing
outside of SGIT to account for controls is then needed to estimate CH 4 emissions. Additional
information from NDEP solid waste staff were also used to fill data gaps in the LMOP data. 90 In
addition, contacts at the health departments in Washoe and Clark County provided additional
information on the application of controls at the State’s three largest landfills (Lockwood,
Sunrise and Apex). 91
The data from NDEP included 2005 emplacement rates for both municipal solid waste (MSW)
and industrial waste. The available data indicate that only one of the State’s 25 landfills is
currently controlled (Apex was flared and was to have a landfill gas to energy (LFGTE) plant
installed by December 2006). Sunrise landfill is to have an LFG collection system and flare
operational by early 2007 (for this site, waste emplacement rates were estimated based on
available LMOP data to be an average of 1,000,000 tons/year from 1960-1993; this is also the
annual mass of waste that the Apex LF began accepting when it opened to replace the Sunrise
site). For Lockwood, the Washoe County contact indicated that a flare would probably be
installed within the next three years. Unfortunately, data for a total of only 10 landfills (including
the largest thee mentioned above) were available in the LMOP database, and historical
emplacement data were not available through NDEP. The remaining seven landfills are
uncontrolled as are the 15 or so other small landfills for which no data are available. 92
89 LMOP database is available at: http://www.epa.gov/lmop/proj/index.htm. Updated version of the database
provided by Rachel Goldstein, Program Manager, EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program, October 2006.
90 Dave Simpson, NDEP, personal communication with S. Roe, CCS, November 2006.
91 Jeannie Rucker, Washoe County Department of Health and Dennis Campbell, Clark County Department of
Health, personal communications with S. Roe, CCS, December 2006. In Washoe County, the Lockwood LF will
likely need to install controls by 2010. These controls have not been included in the emissions forecast.
92 The remaining sites for which no data were available are: Carson City Sanitary LFl, Russell Pass LF, Wells Cargo
Industrial LF, West Wendover LF, City of Goldfield Sanitary LF, Eureka Sanitary LF, Humboldt County Regional
Nevada Division of 63 Center for Climate Strategies
Environmental Protection
www.climatestrategies.us