(Fogdog Energy Solutions)

By Sheldon Spackman

Change Of Conditions

Sylvan Lake terminates agreement for No Landfill Disposal Facility

May 27, 2021 | 4:26 PM

Sylvan Lake town council has asked administration to terminate its Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Fogdog Energy Solutions Incorporated for a proposed No Landfill Disposal Facility (NLDF) in the community.

The directive issued Tuesday officially ends the expectation of having a new waste disposal facility being up and running by the end of the year as previously planned.

It was initially planned to open in late 2020. However, due to delays caused by the pandemic led to an extension being granted through Dec. 31, 2021.

The No Landfill Disposal Facility would have diverted waste from Sylvan Lake’s landfill and converted it into carbon “fluff” to be sold for conversion into hydrocarbon products such as diesel and gasoline. Virtually any form of waste, excluding glass, metals, and some hazardous waste, would have been accepted, according to Fogdog’s website.

It was expected that the facility would also divert more than 15 tonnes per day from the Red Deer landfill, and lead to a decrease in disposal fees and transportation costs in Sylvan Lake and no additional bin programs.

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Wally Ferris, CAO for the Town of Sylvan Lake, says the agreement was based on specific technology Fogdog could no longer offer that would have saved the community roughly $240,000 annually.

“It used a unique technology, not the thermal one. Thermal ones burn, so unfortunately Fogdog is not able to deliver that technology and that was the technology that council was interested in,” he explains. “They submitted an alternate proposal for us to consider, but it was the thermal waste-to-energy type of system. For us, it’s a material change in the agreement. It’s not the technology that we signed up for.”

Ferris suggests that if the Town were to still transition to a waste-to-energy solution moving forward, they would like to do it through a proper and competitive process for not only transparency, but to see what other technologies are out there.

“We’ll be moving forward with just a traditional sold waste solution that we’ve been doing all along,” adds Ferris. “We will have to go out for tender probably later this summer and get a contract for somebody to accept out waste and to dispose of it. Typically, that’s been Red Deer.”

Ferris says the next town council early in 2022 will see waste-to-energy on its agenda for discussion.

Marlon Lee, President of Fogdog Energy Solutions, admits council’s decision is very disappointing, but notes the world’s investment climate has changed since the project was first planned.

“We had to look at it from an economic perspective and our investors for what they required, required us to do a change of technology for the Sylvan Lake project,” he explains. “In a previous arrangement that we had with Sylvan, was to put in a converter technology to process that waste. And the output of that was just going to be the ‘fluff’ as far as Sylvan Lake was concerned, but our investors for what their requirements are, said they need energy.”

“So we had to do a change of technology and that’s really all that we had requested from the Town,” he elaborates. “But unfortunately, I would say that Sylvan Lake was a bit short sighted in their decision.”

Lee says the change of technology for the project would have still brought all the same benefits as originally planned.

“In fact, we offered even a discounted amount on the tipping fees that was positioned in the previous arrangement as well, he exclaims. “Sylvan is not contributing any financial contributions to the project as it was, so it was all our funding. But the only thing is, is that we just needed to change the format of the technology, but they couldn’t get around that.”

Lee says Fogdog will continue its efforts in securing other waste disposal facilities throughout the public and private sectors.

“We’re always looking to improve the overall well-being of our residents by exploring any ideas and initiatives that can provide positive environmental impacts for Sylvan Lakers,” concludes Ferris. “But also for future generations to ensure the long-term sustainability of our community.”