SAUGUS — WIN Waste Management Plant Manager Elliott Casey informed the Board of Health about the facility’s most recent activities since its last update.
Casey said that the facility operated at 71% availability, and processed just more than 34,000 tons. From the processed waste, the facility generated just more than 17,000 megawatts of power.
The facility had four unscheduled downtime events, which totaled up to 30 hours. There were two scheduled maintenance events, totaling 458 hours.
The cold iron outage, which began on the same day as the Board of Health’s last meeting on May 6, was completed.
“During this outage, the facility completed significant maintenance and repairs,” Casey said.
He said that the facility also completed the replacement of the east refuse crane.
Additionally, modifications were made to the superheater at the facility, which changes the way discharge is expelled from the facility. It was previously being discharged from the side of the building “towards the community,” Casey said, but is now being expelled through the roof.
The modification was a project that Casey said was developed after the “noise event” last September in an attempt to mitigate any noise that might occur in the event that the safety valves need to be utilized.
The modification, Casey said, will help “to continue to show the community our dedication and commitment to being a good neighbor.”
With regard to WIN Waste’s shipping of ash out of the facility to Shrewsbury, Casey said that it has shipped out 4,760 tons since the board’s last meeting.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection contacted the facility on May 21, Casey said, due to a smoke complaint that had been relayed to it by the Environmental Protection Agency on May 1.
Casey said that afterward, the facility’s management reviewed emissions data, data that had already been processed, and the functionality of air-pollution equipment at the facility. It determined that on May 1, “everything was operating normally” and that there were no operational issues at the facility that would have created an “observed opacity.”
He said that on June 3, he notified the Board of Health about a downtime event that occurred, as well as the loss of induced draft fans, which led to a smoky condition at the facility for approximately 15 minutes.
After necessary repairs were completed, Casey said that the facility was brought back online later that same evening. The facility did not receive any complaints regarding the event.
Casey said that the facility did not experience any excess emissions output or radioactive loads since the board’s last meeting.
