After more than ten years of operation, there is enough trash at Twin Oaks Landfill in Grimes County to start removing gas. Instead of the cost of burning off the gas, the board that operates the landfill for the cities of College Station and Bryan agreed to negotiate a contract with a private firm to remove the gas and sell it.
“We are taking something that will cost us money, take it over, and it will show in the bottom line to the tune of a million of two million dollars net, per year,” said College Station city councilman John Nichols at a recent city council meeting.
Nichols, who chairs the board that runs the Grimes County landfill, says this will be a revenue producer because the private company bears the construction and operational costs.
College Station Mayor Karl Mooney said an attempt was made to do something similar at the closed Rock Prairie landfill.
There was an attempt to do it, but the amount of gas that could be recovered was negligible,” said Mooney. “Part of that is how the cells are built now, in the new landfills.”
Mooney says the gas removal operation could begin before the end of this year.