Lowly Cow Manure Has a Big Role in Power Plant
American Diversified Savings Bank, which has long concerned federal regulators with its off-beat investments in wind farms, said it now plans to construct a $60-million plant near Chino that will turn cow manure into electricity.
The plant, to be operated by American Diversified Capital Corp., a subsidiary of the Costa Mesa-based savings bank, will consume 412,000 tons of manure a year--approximately one-third of the manure generated in the Chino Valley--and generate 25 megawatts of electricity, according to Mike Brodie, a spokesman for American Diversified.
Southern California Edison has already signed a 20-year contract with American Diversified to purchase the electricity and Edison spokesman Bernard Peters says the plant’s 25 megawatts should provide enough electricity to serve 25,000 people.
“Besides adding jobs and income, we’re helping to eliminate a major problem in the area,” said Brodie.
Excess cow manure in the Chino Valley, which has one of the largest concentrations of dairy cows in the country, contributes to the salts which are leached into the area’s ground water.
American Diversified estimates that construction of the plant will create 100 jobs and that once the plant is completed, the facility will require 24 employees to operate it. By directly creating 24 jobs, Brodie said his company also will indirectly help create 62 jobs in the Chino area. The combined salaries of direct and indirect jobs created by the project, Brodie says, totals $4.2 million. Brodie also said the company will pay annual property taxes of $600,000 on the 35-acre parcel of unincorporated San Bernardino County land near Archbishop Avenue, where it plans to build the plant. Given the uncertainty of the permit process, Brodie said, American Diversified has only an option to purchase the parcel.
The company has applied to the state treasurer’s office for $60 million in California Pollution Control Financing Authority bonds, and, according to Brodie, the company is also considering using private investors to pay for any financing not covered by the bonds. Brodie would not say whether the company had received approval from the state, saying that such information could jeopardize “approval of other permits we need.”
American Diversified is negotiating with a consultant to create an environmental impact report for the project. The study could take between three to six months, according to John Perevuznik, a senior planner for San Bernardino County.
Brodie said the company hopes to break ground on the project in December, 1986, and have the plant operational by 1988.
Project manager Gaylen Oderkirk said the company plans to burn the manure in “fluidized bed” combustors, which will create steam to power turbines. The process is designed to maximize the energy created from the manure by regulating the temperature at which the waste is burned, Oderkirk said. “There’s not much energy in biomass,” Oderkirk said, adding: “The more thoroughly you burn it, the more energy you get.”
The company is still negotiating with manure suppliers, and Brodie says that he isn’t sure whether the plant will be “buying manure or whether it will fall like manna from heaven.” American Diversified recently gained approval from the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors to burn other fuels--totaling no more than 25% of the plant’s total output--in addition to manure. Although the company had no plans to burn toxic materials or sewer sludge at the plant, the board precluded them from doing so in response to concerns by diary farmers that bacteria from the materials might harm cows.
American Diversified Capital Corp. is a general partner in several wind farms in the Altamont Pass in Northern California and in two plants in the Midwest that create ethanol. Brodie and Oderkirk say the company plans to own and operate the Chino facility.
