Wheelabrator to build waste-to-energy facility in Maryland

The Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, in conjunction with the Frederick County Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management and Carroll Country Department of Public Works, has selected Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc., as the preferred vendor to construct and operate a regional waste-to-energy facility that will serve the solid waste disposal and energy needs of Frederick and Carroll Counties. The facility will be located in Frederick County.

The facility will be owned by the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority and will serve Frederick and Carroll counties.

Upon a positive vote from both counties’ Board of Commissioners, the permitting and approval phase will begin this spring and will take approximately two years, followed by a three-year engineering and construction period. The projected completion date for the facility is 2014.

At the height of construction, the project is expected to employ 1,000 workers engaged in excavation, concrete work, electrical work, fabrication and steelwork. Once completed, Wheelabrator expects to employ approximately 50 full-time employees to operate the plant.

The waste-to-energy plant will be capable of processing up to 1,500 tons per day of municipal solid waste with an electric generating capacity of 55 megawatts.

At full capacity, the proposed facility would be able to produce 55 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity from every day trash, potentially eliminating the need for Maryland utilities to annually burn 500,000 barrels of oil or 130,000 tons of coal.