In the late 1980's Onondaga County government agreed on a plan to deal with
the community's mounting garbage crisis. Part of this agreement was construction
of a Waste-To-Energy Facility. 
County government tasked OCRRA, an independent
public benefit corporation created by the New York State Legislature, with the
responsibility of obtaining permits for the construction of the facility. They
selected Covanta from Fairfield, New Jersey to build and operate the facility.
Waste-To-Energy is the process where trash is used as the fuel to heat tubes
of water in a boiler. The water is heated until it turns into steam, which
is then used to drive a turbine generator that produces electricity.
Waste-to-Energy
is viewed as more beneficial than burying raw garbage because it is a form of
recycling trash into energy, and the solid waste is reduced in volume by 90%.
This saves valuable landfill space and uses a renewable source of energy to serve
about 20,000 homes in Onondaga County with electricity.
Since beginning operation
in late 1994, our community’s Waste-to-Energy Facility has processed over
3 million tons of garbage and has produced over 2 billion kilowatt-hours
of electricity for Central New York. Over the past decade, the facility has
saved over 3.8 million barrels of oil that would have otherwise been consumed
to produce an equivalent amount of electrical power.
The Waste-To-Energy Facility contains $15 million in state-of-the-art pollution control systems and meets all federal and state air emission standards. The air permit under which the facility must operate is one of the strictest
permits in the country.
Since it's start-up in 1994 the facility's environmental performance has exceeded expectations. The facility continues to
be operated well within the environmental requirements established by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. To understand this more fully, you can review the results of the annual residue and emissions tests conducted each year in our WTE Facility Operations Reports. A summary of these annual reports can be found in WTE Stack Test Data and Summary Charts.
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