Residents concerned over EarthRenew restart

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A group of county residents are making a big stink about a company looking to produce organic fertilizer by heating cow manure at a plant north of Strathmore.

EarthRenew Strathmore Inc. operates a four-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant located on the Cattleland Feedyards, to the northwest of the intersection between Highways 564 and 817, approximately 10 kilometres north of Strathmore.

But the company’s main claim-to-fame is not power generation, but rather holding a patented process for generating cured, concentrated, organic fertilizer produced from manure, by using excess heat from its gas turbine. However, while its facility was commissioned in 2007, production operations ceased in 2010 because “some of the original engineer and design features made it uneconomical to continue,” said Brenna Barlow, project manager with EarthRenew, in an email.

The company has been under new ownership and management since 2016, despite its name being unchanged, she added.

When active, part of the power generated by the plant can be used to drive the waste-to-fertilizer process. But since fertilizer production stopped, the power plant has operated only intermittently, when prices for power were sufficient to make generating electricity cost-feasible, according to a 2018 Canadians Securities Exchange Form 2A listing statement. The generated power is sold into the grid or to Cattleland for its operations, or is used to generate cryptocurrency using on-site mining rigs (computer systems used to generate cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin). According to a Feb. 1, 2019, EarthRenew news release, electricity production at the facility was to restart by March 2019.

EarthRenew is looking to resume fertilizer production operations, albeit using a redesigned facility. A May 19, 2020, news release from the company stated that “front-end” engineering and design plans have been completed on this facility redesign.

“We have taken the best of the technology originally developed and combined it with new processes that are more efficient,” said Barlow.

The company is now seeking the necessary regulatory approvals to restart operations. EarthRenew’s current approval by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA), which was originally issued on Nov. 27, 2009 and subsequently extended, expires on Oct. 31, 2020. The company is now seeking to renew its EPEA approval, as per a public notice that appeared in the July 24 issue of the Strathmore Times.

The notice garnered a response from landowners living around the plant, in part because they allege that while the plant was in operation, it caused nuisance odours that were so severe they made being outside intolerable and caused health impacts, in some cases. A group of about 25 individuals met to discuss the issue on the evening of Aug. 26.

“If they were operating, you couldn’t go out of our house,” said Jan Phillips. “You couldn’t keep your windows open (and) couldn’t open the door. I don’t want to relive that nightmare.”

“It was absolutely disgusting,” added Ryan Forsyth. “You’d go outside and you would be just like, ‘yeah, we’re not having a fire tonight – we’re not doing anything.’”

“The big problem was air quality when that thing ran,” said Roger Deed. “You couldn’t be around if there was a northeast wind when it was running – I’d be physically ill.”

The odour issue will be addressed with new equipment, said Barlow. “We are currently designing a complement of odour reduction systems that includes stack scrubbers as well as an overall emissions management system.”

The company is required to conduct air and odour dispersion modelling, which will occur during the second stage of start-up. The company also expects stack testing to be conducted on a regular basis once the facility is operational, which may be a requirement of regulatory approval, said Barlow.

But there is also concern from residents regarding the impacts of EarthRenew on local groundwater.

The company has filed for a Water Act license to divert up to 2,124.74 cubic metres of groundwater annually, at a maximum rate of 60 litres per minute, as per a public notice in the Aug. 16, 2019, edition of the Strathmore Times. The screened interval, where the well is open to the surrounding aquifer, is 62.2 to 68.3 metres below ground, as per the notice. The company has not yet been granted approval, said Barlow.

“We use our water to live,” said resident Don Gordon. “They’re not using it to live – they’re using it for greed and to make money.”

If less groundwater becomes available, there will be a cost of not only buying extra water, but also of buying and installing holding tanks, added Gordon.

A petition against the restart of fertilizer production operations at the plant has received more than 160 signatures, said Berle Hebbes, who started the petition. Once complete, it will be circulated to representatives of Wheatland County and potentially to the MLAs representing the region, he said.

“We do not want to see the plant in any way, shape or form,” said Hebbes.