EPUD: New methane deal will hurt 40,000 in Lane County, twice

EPUD says Lane County’s 3-2 vote to move ahead with a big methane capture project will harm a long-time rural partner. During public comment with the Lane County commissioners April 30:

[00:00:12] Curt Offenbacher (EPUD, April 30, 2024): Curt Offenbacher, board member of Emerald People’s Utility District. EPUD spent, over the last 30 years, tens of millions of dollars capturing your methane gas at Short Mountain landfill at no cost to the county.

[00:00:28] We’re being rewarded by not even being recognized as a stakeholder in your process to plan for future gas capture. In the last two years alone, we spent $2.5 million dollars on new gas wells and pipelines to increase our capture rate to 70%. (Public Works) Director (Dan) Hurley stated that this is just one data point. Well, it was the last data point of the study he looked at. Since then, we’ve maintained the 70% and it will continue on into the future with our additional investment.

[00:01:05] Last August, our board turned down a very lucrative offer from NW Natural Gas to sell our gas rights at Short Mountain so they could convert it into renewable natural gas. We turned them down because our mission is to provide economical, reliable electricity to our customers, not to try to make money selling to a for-profit company to make renewable natural gas to sell to someone somewhere. At the same time as that rejection, we directed our staff to pursue the design and construction of a new $20 million generation plant and capture even more gas.

[00:01:51] Sadly, that decision’s been put on hold due to your decision in December to build the IMERF and digester outside of Short Mountain.

[00:02:03] Your climate action plan states that a digester is to be located at the Short Mountain landfill. It’s obvious the reason you’re siting the project outside the landfill, so Lane County Solid Waste gets the benefits of the gas sales to Bulk Handling. However, the county, for your draft contract, is giving away to Bulk Handling the first $5 million each year of gas sales.

[00:02:31] As you know, you don’t have any control over the volume or the price of that gas, that Bulk Handling sells to NW Natural Gas. So you don’t have an idea of the potential revenue or lack thereof.

[00:02:45] EPUD requested the commissioners reconsider their decision to site the IMERF outside of Short Mountain landfill and continue to cooperate and work with EPUD to continue to capture the methane by proven methods and place the proposed digester at Short Mountain landfill, according to your climate action plan.

[00:03:13] Charles Kimball (EPUD, June 25, 2024): I’m Charles Kimball, board president for Emerald PUD here in Lane County. I’m sure you’re all tired of seeing myself and other Emerald officials at these meetings and we’re tired of being here and it’s also a little humiliating that as the Lane County public agency that’s been here for 40 years, that we have to come here and beg for our three minutes.

[00:03:36] And frankly far too much of this process with the IMERF has been conducted in closed meetings and background negotiations. I speculate that sooner or later you’re going to have to answer for that.

[00:03:47] In August of ’22, Emerald Northwest Natural Gas in Lane County signed a memorandum of understanding that specifically addressed working together at Short Mountain to accomplish just the project that you’re now looking at.

[00:04:03] In early 2023, we learned anecdotally that the county was working on a project like this away from Short Mountain that excluded EPUD. And when we asked county staff what’s going on, we were told it’s a pipe dream, it doesn’t pencil out, nothing to see here. When the county board asked in public meetings in 2023, have we engaged all stakeholders, county staff enthusiastically said, ‘Yes, we have!’ I’m not sure what the term ‘engagement’ means to this body, but we don’t think it means telling people what you’re going to do whether they like it or not. Engagement means listening and responding, so you didn’t forget to engage stakeholders, you didn’t neglect to engage stakeholders, and you weren’t in a rush and didn’t have time, as your Public Works Director told us recently.

[00:05:00] You very deliberately blocked EPUD and probably the garbage haulers as well from engaging in any meaningful way on this project. So here’s my ask today and I think Lane County citizens and certainly Emerald’s ratepayers deserve an answer: Why?

[00:05:22] Curt Offenbacher (EPUD, June 25, 2024): I’m Curt Offenbacher, Emerald board member. I’d like to point out that if the IMERF facility if built as planned and the experiment works as advertised, which is doubtful, it will result in potentially the largest single negative financial impact to EPUD in our 40-year history.

[00:05:48] I am referring to the loss of the ability to generate $20 million of electric power over the next 20 years due to the reduction of methane at the Short Mountain landfill.

[00:06:01] EPUD last August turned down a $27 million offer from NW Natural Gas to purchase our rights to the gas. We turned it down as we want to continue producing low-cost, reliable electricity for our local customers. And we did that with the knowledge at that time that we would work with Lane County Solid Waste to design a facility at Short Mountain landfill as stated in your Climate Action Plan and the MOU that Dan Hurley signed.

[00:06:37] Little did we know that Lane County Solid Waste was working behind our backs to design the facility outside the landfill so they could intercept the gas to their benefit.

[00:06:48] I wonder how much, if any, the county will receive for the rights to the gas produced at the IMERF. If it’s 20% of the landfill gas, then it should be worth at least $5 to $6 million dollars just for the rights.

[00:07:04] I don’t know the answer as the county has forged ahead negotiating with Bulk Handling System and NW Natural Gas behind closed doors and has continued to fail to heed EPUD’s concerns. The winners in the current plan are NW Natural Gas who can purchase RNG from Bulk Handling Systems and mainly Bulk Handling Systems, who get free land, a free building, a $32 million state grant, the first $5 million of annual gas sales, the first $5 million of annual recyclable sales, and their product development subsidized by Lane County and EPUD ratepayers.

Such a deal for a private profit, for-profit company, not a good deal for public consumer-owned utility or Lane County citizens.

[00:07:57] We again ask that Lane County step back and work with the major stakeholders to arrive at a facility that benefits us all. Thank you.

[00:08:10] Janet Pelroy (June 25, 2024): For the record, my name is Janet Pelroy.

[00:08:13] I’m the president of Ecosystems Transfer and Recycling. We are a family-owned-and-operated business here. We service the rural Lane County. My husband I built this business working 24/7 for years to make it successful. And we cannot stand by and not voice our great concern about the future.

[00:08:35] We strongly oppose the proposal between Lane County and Bulk Handling Systems. There has been a total disrespect and lack and disregard for the Lane County haulers.

[00:08:48] Facts and figures were provided and you chose to not listen. Need I remind you, we the haulers are the backbone of the waste management system. We are the backbone. You depend on us. Without the hauler support, this project will never be successful. The lack of transparency with the haulers and the public is unacceptable. We have notified our customers of the increased tipping fees and why we are having to raise prices, which is due to this risky, expensive, and unnecessary facility. Everyone is suffering with a high cost of living. Budgets are tight.

[00:09:31] We are very concerned with losing customers with the increased rates, which may result in job losses. Illegal dumping, which is already on the rise, with the cost of the project, the cost of the project has increased from $65 million now to $155 million. Additional costs are adding up with consulting and rezoning the wetlands to allow building on the 26 acres.

[00:10:01] The biggest losers are the citizens who you are supposed to represent. Are you being fiscally responsible with our hard-earned money? Please open your ears, your hearts, and your minds and really listen to our concerns.

[00:10:23] Melinda Montgomery (June 25, 2024): I’m Melinda Montgomery and I’m from Noti.

[00:10:25] So I’m here to voice my opposition to this dirty IMERF project. It is untried technology. It is costly, especially to rural constituents and most of all it is anti-business which means anti-jobs.

[00:10:39] This project is going to replace jobs already out there provided by IP, provided by Rexius and the like. The economy dictates that you are frugal. The Commission doesn’t need to be looking for more ways to be spending our money especially when you don’t even have enough money to fully patrol our county or to keep our parks open to the way they should be kept open.

[00:11:03] You have a viable situation with EPUD. You can spend a fraction of the amount needed for this boondoggle of a project to upgrade and expand. This would be the epitome of ‘reduce reuse recycle’ and while we’re talking about reduce, reuse, recycle: What about this agreement with EPUD? You need to follow through with the things that you have already put in place. To not follow through with your agreement or to negate your agreement you already hold with EPUD.

[00:11:34] So what’s the deal? You don’t honor your agreements? I mean that’s that’s just as bad as being a liar and by not honoring your agreement you are basically saying ‘screw you’ to me and my neighbors. You ask how is that? Well, by negating the agreement you will cause my electricity to increase but guess what? You’re going to screw us twice, because our garbage rates are going to increase as well. So. And then while you’re trying to scrape every last quarter out of my pocket, you’re going to come back and ask me for a bond to help pay for this project. So just how much money do you think I have?

[00:12:20] Do you know what this looks like? Looks like someone is going to have some significant personal gain if this thing goes through. So be smart, be prudent, use our money wisely, improve whether it’s in existence, honor your agreements, and stop trying to fleece your county residents for the last dime. We don’t have any more to give.

And as Janet (Pelroy) said, dumping is going to continue to happen. I live on 350 acres of timber. People can access my timber without seeing it and they’re going to dump their garbage. Low Pass residents just spent eight hours two weekends ago cleaning up garbage. That took all day to take to the transfer station. And they did that on their own volition, because they weren’t getting any help from the county to do that.

[00:13:09] So you know we’re going to have more of that, so, we’re just going to have more garbage pile up.

[00:13:17] Heather Redwine-Walter (June 25, 2024): I strongly oppose the Short Mountain IMERF project. I’m a EPUD customer and this project will raise our rates and for electricity and waste disposal. EPUD has been operating a power plant capturing the methane at the landfill for 30 years. We shouldn’t change a good thing. And according to EPUD, the contract with Lane County for gas utilization rights is through 2042. I ask you to honor your agreements and be frugal with the public money.

[00:13:56] Mary Beckman (July 9, 2024): Mary Beckman. I’m here in opposition to the Lane County Commissioner’s decision to build a CleanLane resource recovery facility in Goshen, Oregon. Lane County is proposing an 8 percent fee increase in 2024 and 2025. Followed by 6 percent increases in 2026 and 2027. And of course that doesn’t include the annual 3 percent fee increase that helps maintain the current levels of service.

[00:14:22] This increase may not seem like a lot to you, but is a significant amount to those in the rural areas that rely on garbage pickup by companies such as Ecosystems. Many of these community members are on fixed incomes. Some are at poverty level. I have volunteered at the Goldston Food Pantry for over six years out in Cheshire, located at the Goldston Grange.

[00:14:45] We help 40 to 60 families each month with their food needs. These are the same families that rely on garbage pickup at a reasonable cost. Currently my bill is 31. If an 8 percent increase was imposed to me by the company that picks up my garbage, That would be an increase of 2. 48 a month not the 50 to 60 cents per month that was mentioned in a statement to the local news station.

[00:15:11] That amount could purchase a gallon of milk for these families in need. I’m asking the commissioners to look at alternatives before signing a contract that could unnecessarily cost Lane County millions of dollars.

[00:15:26] Kyle Roadman (Emerald Public Utility District, July 16, 2024): Kyle Roadman, general manager of EPUD. As our board president remarked in public testimony last month, we are certainly tired of coming here. I’m sure you’re tired of having us. Nonetheless, someone needs to be a voice for the more than 40,000 Lane County citizens that we are proud to call customers. As I’m sure you’re well aware the people of Lane County are dealing with a once-in-a-generation cost-of-living crisis.

[00:15:50] A recent article in Forbes placed Oregon as one of the top 10 most expensive states in which to live while our average disposable income is ranked just 31. As a public agency we take this situation seriously and we’re doing our level best not to contribute to the problem.

[00:16:06] I can assure you this is not easy. The electric utility industry is facing unprecedented cost pressure related to power supply shortfalls, supply chain challenges, and the impact of extreme weather events.

[00:16:18] We’ve seen our peers in the industry announce rate increases over the past year between 15% and 30% which adds anywhere between $20 and $30 per month to utility bills. We have enough to deal with without the county’s actions to diminish our fuel supply at Short Mountain.

[00:16:35] This IMERF or ‘CleanLane’ or whatever the latest rebrand attempt is, is taking gas that we could use to generate local low-cost power for our customers. This will need to be replaced with power that can be five to 10 times as expensive.

[00:16:50] The troubling narrative that appears to be developing is that yes, EPUD customers will have to pay more, but it’s worth it for some vague notion of extending the life of the landfill 70 to 100 years from now.

[00:17:02] After hearing from thousands of our customers in recent months, I can assure you they are in no mood to pay a disproportionate share of the cost for this ill-conceived project. As unpleasant as all of this may be, we’re going to continue to advocate for our customers, who are also your constituents, as you well know. We encourage you to listen to them and to take seriously their concerns about affordability.

[00:17:26] We all love living here in Lane County, but with costs rising like few other places in the country, the reality is we are on the verge of pricing people out. Please think twice before making this situation worse by pushing this wholly unnecessary IMERF or ‘CleanLane’ project.

[00:17:43] It’s not too late. We stand ready to help you shift course while still meeting your climate goals. Thank you.

[00:17:52] Patti Chappel (July 16, 2024): Patti Chappel, I am from West Lane out in the Veneta area and I have two, another board director from EPUD who’s rather saddened to have to meet you all here, those of you that I haven’t met, this morning on this subject of the IMERF.

[00:18:07] I’ve got to say right off the bat, Ms. Trieger, that there is not enough methane for everybody by any means whatsoever.

[00:18:16] We’ve been involved, I’ve been involved with EPUD for several decades and have seen the benefits of the Short Mountain Power Plant firsthand. Since the early 1990s, EPUD customers have enjoyed reliable, low-cost power from this local resource. And as you know, we are committed to our partnership with Lane County out at Short Mountain. In 2019, we helped fund a comprehensive engineering study to and additional steps to increase gas recovery. This resulted in a near doubling of our budget out there at the landfill and the capture rate has since increased dramatically.

[00:18:54] In 2022 we entered a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the county, particularly with your Public Works Department and NW Natural, to explore additional ways to optimize Short Mountain operations.

[00:19:07] We were excited at that time to move forward towards world-class levels of landfill gas management, which makes it all the more frustrating to see the county now changing course without engaging EPUD.

[00:19:21] To be clear, for the record, this IMERF, or now as it’s called, ‘CleanLane’ project, was developed with virtually no input from us at EPUD. We first found out about the Goshen site involvement from EPUD staff.

[00:19:36] We found out about that was being considered by talking to a third-party engineer, not ever from Public Works. We were never once consulted about the option of placing the digester at the landfill, which is what our contract anticipates with you, our partners at the county.

[00:19:55] We’ve been going steady for a long time, 40 years. It’s tough to break up this way and we don’t want to.

[00:20:00] As we considered a renewable gas project throughout 21 and 22, we kept the county Public Works well-informed of our plans. With a half a dozen meetings to discuss the impact, this is in stark contest contrast to the county’s pursuit of the IMERF, in which we were not asked for formal input until October of 2023, only a month before it came before you for a vote.

[00:20:27] At this point, however, there is obviously division in the Public Works Department and they, that’s been made clear to us from staff at Public Works. There’s a division there. The project does not pencil out and the rate impacts will not pass muster with the cities or my 40,000 customers, residents, and your constituents. We were actually explicitly coached on how to make comments and help stop this project. It’s a bad deal, particularly in these times.

[00:21:04] Commissioner Ryan Ceniga (July 16, 2024): We’ll start with the IMERF. Those are 40,000 residents that are going to see two rate increases, as we’ve talked about multiple times: one energy, second garbage. And one thing that I don’t think everybody understands, and nor should they, is how power works, right? Power comes through a grid and passes on. You can’t store energy. So although those generators that EPUD is currently operating might not produce a lot of power, they knock down the spikes. So when power is most expensive you run those generators, and you knock down those spikes. So it’s not a lot of power they produce, but it’s expensive power they produce. That’s just, you know, that’s just something that we should think about when we’re considering the lack of methane that they will soon be noticing. We could go on and on about it, but that’s just one point that I would really like to drive home is: It’s not a lot of power, but it’s the expensive power.

[00:22:07] You’re listening to the news and there’s been statements out that we are looking at rolling brownouts in 2027. I’ve been saying this for years. EVs, people having more air conditioners, and just more people. We’re not producing any more power, but we’re using more. So these are all things we need to consider.

[00:22:32] Commissioner Ryan Ceniga (June 25, 2024): I think part of that gets to, we are lacking some transparency on this project. I fully believe that. I’ve said that since day one that I’ve been involved in this project, that we have not done the public outreach that I think we should on a project of this size. So thanks for coming out. I appreciate it and we are listening.

[00:22:53] Commissioner David Loveall (June 25, 2024): Yeah, I would echo Commissioner Ceniga’s comments about the particular IMERF project and again we’re going to be addressing that tomorrow and in coming days. I think the process is kind of a rocky one, but I think it’s working through the system well. I think Mr. Offenbacher and Mr. Kimball, you bring up some really good questions. I think your question to ‘why’ continually needs to be answered, and I’m committed to answering those questions on not only your behalf, but your ratepayers, and my own constituents of Springfield has a great concern about this project.

[00:23:25] As for the haulers, I wanted to say, Janet, thank you for coming out and giving your word. I don’t think the public knows, but 70% of the flow of trash and debris comes from private haulers in Lane County. So I think someone who has that big of a stake in the system needs a voice at the table, so thank you for reminding us of that.

[00:23:46] Commissioner Laurie Trieger (June 25, 2024): As for the IMERF project, I think there’s just a lot of misinformation, disinformation, confusion, lack of understanding about the interplay between the existing energy capture project and the initiative that we are implementing at Lane County.

[00:24:02] There’s plenty of methane to go around. And to be really clear, when we have executive sessions, that is not backroom dealing or hiding things or lack of transparency, there is Oregon statute that governs certain topics that can be discussed in executive session.

[00:24:18] But programmatic and major policy decisions and direction all happens in public and I stand by that. And I support not only this board, that we maintain the integrity of conducting our business the way we are legally required and authorized to, but also our staff, that our staff has integrity around this project and that they’re not trying subvert the proper process and procedures.

[00:24:44] It’s just a very large and complex project and requires a lot of work and I just don’t want to infuse the complexity, I don’t want to conflate complexity with any kind of lack of integrity.

[00:25:03] Commissioner Heather Buch (July 16, 2024): I know we have had several conversations with people coming up and speaking about the IMERF project specifically from EPUD.

[00:25:12] Of course thank you for coming again and listen to the customers that are writing in. I am a staunch supporter of the CleanLane project. It has a lot of really wonderful benefits for the community. I continue to have that position. It doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that there are concerns from customers which I will absolutely be open to hearing about.

[00:25:40] But the benefits of the CleanLane project are outstanding for our community. And that is the reason which I continue to support that project. I just want to make that perfectly clear to the community and anybody that’s listening and to the EPUD Board of Directors who probably already know that. But it’s important that the community knows that as well.

[00:26:01] John Q: The deal was approved by a 3-2 vote, with Pat Farr joining Heather Buch and Laurie Trieger.

[00:26:10] Commissioner Pat Farr (Dec. 5, 2023): This has been a well-engaged discussion to this point. We’ve heard a lot from a lot of people that, we’ve had free engagement. We’re at a point right now where we will be making a decision regarding the next step. So with that, with no further discussion, the motion before us is passage of Order 23-12-05-07. I’ll call for the vote. All those in favor please say aye. (Aye.) (Aye.)(Aye.)  Opposed? (Nay.)(Nay.) That’s a 3-2 with Commissioners Loveall and Ceniga opposed.

[00:26:51] John Q: EPUD says it was deliberately excluded from participating in the process, and asks Lane County: Why?