Arlington Star-Telegram 2/5/03
By: Jim Witt - Executive Editor

Jesters have always claimed that Arlington gives Fort Worth gas, but darned if it isn't
working out that way. the Environmental Projection Agency recently issued a national
award for a public-private project that captures methane gas from Arlington's landfill
and then pipes it four miles west to Fort Worth's Village Creek Wastewater Treatment
Plant. It provides about 75 percent of the energy needed to run the plant and may
eventually provide 100 percent.

Methane is a colorless gas, a highly flammable byproduct of decomposition of organic
solids. As might be expected, a landfill contains substantial quantiites of such
materials so much so, that the EPA and safety consideratrions require its disposal.
Most often it is piped off via a costly system of undrgroound collectors and burned in
the atmospheere. It's a waste of energy and money. And the process is not that
environmentally friendly. But Arlington worked out an agreement with Renovar Energy
corp. of Midland, which funded a $3 million collector system at the landfill and also
will fund future maintenance and responsibility for a collector system. Though
Arlington doesn't make any money on the system, it does save a lot of cash. Renovar
benefits financially, creating jobs and taxable assets in the process.

Fort Worth's Village Creek plant benefits because the methane it purchases is cheaper
than other energy sources. And, of course, there are also environmental benefits. No
wonder the EPA cited the project as the nation's top project of the year related to
methane recovery.

It may be a relatively small victory in the big picture for the environment and energy
conservation, but when such projects are replicated across the country, the collective
impact becomes significant.

• Arlington Star -Telegram 1/24/03
• The Dallas Morning News 1/24/03
• Permian Basin Oil & Gas Report 1/26/03
• Arlington Star-Telegram 2/5/03