Unalaska, AK – The city might have a solution to our local waste problem. Instead of filling up the landfill with tires, nets, household waste, and other trash, we can turn it all into energy. The public utilities department is looking into buying a waste-to-energy system. Public Utilities Director Dan Winters said it burns much hotter than an incinerator - 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.

"When you grind up your garbage, dry your garbage, and insert it into the drum it instantly cracks it back to its elements and what comes out the bottom is ash," he explained. "Then we will take the methane off of that and a third of the methane will be used to keep the chemistry going in the drum itself and the rest will be used to run a generator."

The mechanism produces enough energy to run itself and to pump 100 KW of power back into the grid every hour. That means replacing some diesel with clean burning natural gas and expanding the life of the landfill. With normal waste, a landfill cell fills up in three years. With ash, it will take ten years. The machine can also "crack" garbage from old cells.

"We won't have to dig holes in the ground any more to put our garbage in. It will crack everything but metal and glass."

Winters said the preliminary feasibility study shows that Unalaska's waste is especially good for the system since nets and tires create so much heat. The system would also reduce problems with lechate - or the water that seeps through the landfill and needs to be cleaned at the water treatment plant to prevent pollution. The entire system will cost $25 million dollars but in the long run it would save money on digging new cells and eventually having to find a new location for the landfill.

But in order to fund the new system, the city needs to prove to the state government that it is properly managing and funding the landfill, or the state won't give the city any grant money. Currently, the city subsidizes the landfill operating costs with $1.1 million from the general fund per year. To stop that, the city will increase landfill rates by 11 percent per year for the next three years. For most users that means a jump of $5 per month by 2011. The city will also impose a $50 registration tax for vehicles to pay for removing junk cars.

"We spend about $500,000 per year shipping junk vehicles out and the problem with this is that a lot of the junk vehicles are abandoned and we cant' find the owners so we can't charge them so that's a cost that the tax payer is bearing," Winters said.

An ordinance to change the rates will come before city council soon. The council discussed the proposal at last week's meeting. They also approved the first reading of an ordinance that increases water rates for metered - or primarily industrial - users. The water rate has not changed since 1994. The ordinance would increase charges about 10 cents per thousand gallons for the next 15 months. This should increase the utility's revenue by about $120,000. The water department is also trying to cut costs by using less expensive wells and delaying some small projects.