By Shelley Cohen

In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency launched the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) as part of the United States Climate Change Action Plan. The LMOP is a voluntary program that works in partnership with industry, states, communities, landfill owners and operators, utilities, and power marketers to promote the development of environmentally and economically beneficial landfill gas–to–energy projects across the US.

Since its inception, the LMOP has worked to promote the benefits of LFG, helping more than 175 projects become operational. Through industry and LMOP efforts, US landfills will reduce their emissions by 11 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (US Environmental Protection Agency, 1999). The LMOP facilitates the development of LFG-utilization projects through hands-on assistance to stakeholders, providing customized solutions to project challenges. In particular, the LMOP focuses outreach to municipally owned and smaller landfill sites since they often have difficulty attracting funding and are not subject to federal regulations requiring the capture and combustion of LFG. In the LFG industry, the LMOP’s tailored efforts have been well received. It continues to examine innovative ways to provide assistance and most recently began offering a portfolio of technical-assistance tools to help projects overcome recurring development barriers.

The LMOP also assists projects with overcoming development barriers. For example, it helps project partners think creatively about funding options and find answers to tough financing questions. The program’s experience, tools, and network of lending and project development experts provide communities and landfill owners with easy access to information on appropriate funding sources. Through its Web site, conferences, LMOP Update, and other publications, the LMOP offers the latest information on potential financing options, such as grants, low interest loans, and tax credits.

Sometimes the biggest barrier to project development is a lack of awareness of LFG-utilization benefits. For example, focus groups on public attitudes toward LFG, conducted by the LMOP and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, determined that the participants supported the use of LFG once they understood that it was a naturally occurring byproduct of waste decomposition that would be wasted unless put to productive use. For this reason, the LMOP works with communities, landfills, government officials, utilities, power marketers, and developers to increase awareness and build support for projects. The LMOP compliments these outreach efforts by offering LMOP allies and partners tools to assist with their own outreach. For example, the LMOP’s Outreach Primer has helped many new projects address site-specific concerns while providing the necessary tools to plan a ribbon cutting and site tour or to conduct outreach to the media and community.

The LMOP also works diligently to keep on top of critical issues affecting you, your business, and the LFG industry. The program tracks and reports on such issues as emissions permitting, including New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and new source review, tax credits, emissions-reduction credits legislation, and utility restructuring efforts on the state and federal levels. To keep its allies up to date on timely issues, it publishes a bimonthly newsletter. The LMOP also offers a variety of services to support project development, including feasibility and end-user analyses, and has published a Project Development Handbook, case studies of successful technology applications and innovative online projects, and guidance on such issues as NSPS and Clean Air Act compliance.

A critical component of the LMOP strategy is to track and report industry activities in the LMOP Projects Database. The database has emerged as the most up-to-date record of operational, under-construction, and planned projects in the industry. It provides the LMOP and the industry with timely and accurate information on the total amount of LFG emissions reduced from utilization projects. Measuring reductions enables the LMOP to quantify and measure the environmental benefits of these projects and the vitality of the industry. Data are updated concurrently with changes in the industry and are based on information acquired directly from developers and landfill owners and operators. An updated version can be accessed on the LMOP Web site at www.epa.gov/lmop.

Through the ally and partner programs, the LMOP creates a vital network of landfills, states, communities, and companies interested in LFG utilization. The LMOP uses the network to create partnerships for project development. By encouraging linkages between the right people, the LMOP lowers barriers and increases the likelihood that projects will become operational. Since LFG-utilization projects go hand in hand with community commitments to cleaner air, improved public welfare and safety, and reductions in greenhouse (global warming) gases, project acceptance and development are occurring with greater frequency. Chances are, the LMOP is helping a landfill near you.

Reference

US Environmental Protection Agency. US Methane Emissions 1990-2020: Inventories, Projections, and Opportunities for Reductions. USEPA, Office of Air and Radiation. September 1999. www.epa.gov/ghginfo/reports.htm.

Shelley Cohen is the LMOP program manager.

MSW
Nov/Dec 2000