Unlikely Inspiration

A landfill is not typically thought of as a place of artistic inspiration. But for one community in rural North Carolina, an old landfill has provided sculptors, glass blowers and blacksmiths the power and the property to produce their masterpieces.

Dillsboro, with a population of less than 250, is located in Jackson County in the Smoky Mountain region of North Carolina. The small town doesn’t have much much in the way of industry, but it does have an abundance of artisans who produce artwork that is sold in local shops and galleries to locals and to tourists.

Several years ago, concerns arose about methane emissions coming from the Old Dillsboro Road Landfill, which closed in the late 1990s. Since it was such a small landfill, containing about 750,000 tons of garbage, many thought it wouldn’t provide enough methane to be used as a power source. Timm Muth thought differently.

An Economic Asset
Muth was hired by Jackson County in 2005 as a consultant to determine what could be done with the landfill emissions. After a series of public meetings, a solution was found that embraced Dillsboro’s artistic spirit. The community decided to build Green Energy Park (GEP), a facility that would use the methane to power energy-intensive art processes such as blacksmithing, pottery and glass blowing.

“If you can do something to increase tourism, that benefits everybody,” Muth says. “That’s what we were hoping to do—to turn an environmental liability into an economic asset.”

Initial bids for the project came in about three times higher than expected, according to Muth. He figured it could be done for less. With $250,000, he set about cleaning up the site and installing equipment to capture methane. An old trash transfer station at the landfill was turned into a craft building. Trash around it was cleaned up, and nine wells were drilled. Muth recalls the debris cleanup included old police cars, bed springs, and even a semi tractor trailer with trees growing up through it. The landfill is adjacent to the community’s recycling center. Residents had been dealing the unsightly view for decades.

“Everyone constantly drove past this eyesore,” says Muth. “We refurbished it, cleaned it up and put in interior walls. The first thing we put up was a blacksmithing studio.”

The 2,700-square-foot blacksmithing studio was opened to the public in 2006. It consists of three forges and a foundry for melting and pouring of nonferrous metals. According to Muth, they are the only forges and foundry in the world that run on landfill gas. The project earned the 2006 Project of the Year award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In 2009, GEP opened a 2,500-square-foot glass studio with 25-foot ceilings. Muth says, “It is a very neat setting.”

The most recent addition to GEP is a wood-fired kiln that uses wood waste and waste vegetable oil. It opened to the public in 2011.

Artistry isn’t the only field that is being cultivated at Green Energy Park. A biodiesel company also located its business there for a couple of years, and in 2007 local residents donated a set of greenhouses, giving the facility 7,500 square feet of heated greenhouse space.

“We tore it all down and built it back up, saving about $25,000 in steel,” says Muth of the greenhouses. GEP has saved thousands of dollars by growing its own landscaping plants. Muth says he is considering opening the greenhouse up to the community to create a community garden.

“We are always looking for ways to use this energy source we’ve got here,” says Muth.

Muth says the last piece of the puzzle at GEP is a ceramics complex. Plans call for a 14-studio facility. GEP recently applied for non-profit status to help raise funds for the expansion. Muth says he hopes the ceramics complex will allow GEP to become self supporting.

The landfill now has 13 wells to capture methane. Each well is 6 inches in diameter and 70 feet deep. They each have a control valve on them and pipes that lead to the gas skid where water vapor is removed. Muth says methane has a high Btu (British thermal unit) value and that the landfill gas stream is typically 62 percent methane. The direct burn uses at GEP require no further cleanup of the gas, he says.

According to its website, www.jcgep.org, GEP prevents 222 tons of methane from entering the atmosphere each year and offsets 550 tons of CO2 each year that would have been created by fossil fuels. GEP also has a rainwater collection system to cut down on water costs.

Muth, who is the director of GEP, says the facility attracts around 2,500 people per year. Visitors rent studio time, shop in the gallery or attend the many blacksmithing or glassblowing workshops there. Several renowned artists, such as the glass artists Richard Ritter and Fritz Driesbach have given demonstrations at the facility.

“Frankly we are so far out in the woods here, some of these people have never been further away than Asheville,” Muth says, adding, “Some of these people are never going to experience art like this unless we make it available.”

Students from Western Carolina University also utilize the hot and cold shop, grinding and polishing and cutting equipment. The grad students also mentor elementary school children.

On Sept. 22, GEP will hold its 5th Annual Youth Arts Festival, which attracts an estimated 1,000 people and offers children hands-on art activities. Local and regional artists will give demonstrations in pottery making, weaving, painting, collage making and many other arts and craft mediums. Special demonstrations in glass-blowing by Japanese-American glass artist Tadashi Torii and fine metal-working by blacksmith John Burtner will be given center stage in GEP’s facilities.

Seeing is Believing
“One thing I have learned from the job is it’s tough when all you do is stand there preaching,” Muth says. “People need to experience it for themselves.” Muth continues, “When you come into our glass shops, stand in back of the room or see molten steel or glass, it is pretty obvious that something real is happening here. It makes renewables look very easy. When they can stand here and look at it for themselves they say, ‘gosh why doesn’t everybody do that?’”

Green Energy Park is setting a precedent for small-scale uses of landfill gas. Engineers from as far away as Poland and Serbia have visited the facility to see how the landfill gas is being harvested, which is produced at a rate of about 40 cubic feet per minute (CFM). Muth jokes that many of the larger landfills probably flare off more gas than GEP uses.

“In the past, people have said there is nothing you can do with that little bit of gas,” says Muth. “But from a community standpoint, that is quite a bit of processed gas.”

He advises other communities to look at their specific needs. Dillsboro’s application of landfill gas might not work in anther community. Other communities have used landfill gas to dry fiberglass in boat making operations, and there may be other applications yet.

“It is really important to get this information out there,” says Muth. “Every county has one of these tiny landfills sitting here and no one does anything with it. A county or municipality can do something good with the gas.”

The author is managing editor of Renewable Energy from Waste and can be reached at ksmith@gie.net.