Could solar farm transform old city landfill?
Could a former city dump become a model for renewable energy?
Rochester officials are considering the idea at the former Emerson Street Landfill on the city's west side. This spring, the city will likely ask for proposals to install a solar array on a roughly 13-acre corner of the site off Lexington Avenue, just west of the Edison Tech campus.
"The acreage provides us with the potential that there would be up to 1.5 or even 2 megawatts of power-generating, electricity-generating capacity," said Mark Gregor, the city's environmental quality manager.
If so, the site represents the potential for one of the region's largest solar installations, generating more power than a 1-megawatt array that Bausch + Lomb completed off North Goodman Street last year and at least as much as a 1.5-megawatt facility built on an old town dump in Wayne County.
The concept is a long way from reality — the city would likely need approval from state environmental regulators and find out whether a solar developer can make the idea viable. But Mayor Lovely Warren's office signaled its interest in the idea in a letter to City Council last week.
The letter came along with legislation seeking more money to investigate and address pollution from the former landfill.
If pursued, a solar farm could represent a significant reuse of a portion of the long-defunct municipal dump, where the city incinerated and disposed of waste from the early 1930s through the early '70s.
The city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and decades of effort to address contamination from the 250-acre former landfill. While that work is far from finished, only about 16 acres remain on the state's Superfund list of inactive hazardous waste sites.
At the city's request, state environmental regulators agreed in late March to drop from the Superfund list the 13 acres where the city is considering the solar array.
Gregor said the city would likely release a request for proposals from solar developers this spring and then decide whether to proceed from there.
"We haven't done this before, so we're kind of going step-by-step with the process," Gregor said.
If the city pursues the idea, the developer could seek incentives through the state Energy Research and Development Authority's NY-Sun solar initiative.
The city would benefit from power produced by a solar array. To put the energy in context, one megawatt of solar electricity generated in New York could power about 155 homes for a year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
By comparison, the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Plant in Wayne County can generate more than 580 megawatts.
From Lexington Avenue, little stands out about the undeveloped site, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence.
Other sections of the former landfill are set back from a mostly industrial section on Emerson Street, closed in by a fence topped with barbed wire.
One potential advantage of the property, according to city officials: There are no nearby buildings, allowing plenty of sunlight to reach the site. Little else could be easily built there, Gregor said.
In the meantime, the city has been using material dug up for a marina at the Port of Rochester to build an elevated pad at the potential solar site, he said.
Decontamination work
Separately, work will continue to address contamination left behind by the landfill.
Warren asked City Council for its approval to tap $528,200 previously approved, but yet to be spent, for further work in the area. She also has asked for authorization to bond another $694,800.
The combined $1.2 million would be used to address state Department of Environmental Conservation's concerns about underground contamination.
DEC wants the city to further investigate whether harmful vapors from the landfill are seeping up through the soil and into buildings on seven properties. If so, the city would likely design and install ventilation systems to remove those gases.
Most properties in question are occupied by industrial businesses, including Laird Plastics on Emerson Street. The company's assistant manager, Michael Belles, said this week that the city previously checked the air in the building and found no signs of dangerous vapors from the landfill.
Employees there already use vacuum systems and masks because of fumes from cutting plastics, he said.
Laird will let the city do its work and hopes that officials will be straightforward if they find any issues, Belles said.
"If they find something, then obviously we'll have to deal with it, but nothing's ever been proven," he said.
The city also will conduct a study and pilot project to determine whether it is feasible to clean up or treat the source of the vapors — a plume of groundwater contaminated by chlorinated solvents dumped at the landfill.
"This is a continuation of a story of being responsible and addressing environmental concerns," Gregor said.
For the job, Warren has proposed to hire LaBella Associates, an engineering firm that previously worked on landfill projects, for the next three years.
DRILEY@DemocratandChronicle.com