Cedar Road Bioenergy Inc. is unable to provide royalty payments to the Regional District of Nanaimo unless there are changes to the Nanaimo landfill site, says an executive.
The bioenergy facility converts methane to energy and Paul Liddy, managing director, told the regional district board last Tuesday there was significant methane that isn’t being captured.
The two have a lengthy history, dating back to 2005 when an agreement was developed to find a beneficial use for gas at the landfill, that includes thresholds for natural gas production that would result in royalties to the regional district.
“I would suggest right now, if we were capturing even a portion of the additional that is not capped, that should be, and managed with a little bit more capacity, we would be writing a cheque this month for $50,000 to the [regional district] this year, for 2015,” Liddy said.
Liddy said there is work that needs to be done, including areas that haven’t had caps put on them.
“I think the underlying issue here is everyone’s getting backed up on the budgetary process and nothing’s getting pushed through,” said Liddy.
“People in the landfill, everyone’s trying very hard to do the best job they can … we have no money, we don’t have the people, we don’t have the resources.
“We don’t have the allocation to do this. That area should’ve been capped and pushed and sealed two years ago when it was ready to be. Instead, we’re just spewing gas.”
Liddy estimated it would take a budget of $50,000 to $100,000 a year to get the wells and capping in on an ongoing basis. An additional $75,000 to $150,000 a year, for the first couple of years, would be needed for the regional district to see royalties, he projected.
The board requested a staff report and according to Chris Midgley, regional district manager of energy and sustainability, it will address items in Liddy’s presentation.
“If there’s a viable business case for some of the claims that [he] was making and that we’ll investigate, then we’ll assess that when those conclusions are reached,” said Midgley.
“But for the time being, we just have to think about what [he] was saying at the presentation and try to address that and provide an objective response back to our board of directors so they get, what we consider to be, a fuller story,” Midgley said.
