MMSD panel OKs contract for pipeline

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District on Monday moved another step closer to its goal of reducing utility bills by burning landfill gas in sewage sludge dryers at the Milorganite fertilizer plant on Jones Island.

The district's governing commission awarded a $3.98 million contract to Veolia Water Milwaukee LLC to design both the 17-mile pipeline from the Emerald Park landfill in Muskego to Jones Island and the conversion of dryers to burn landfill gas instead of natural gas.

The estimated cost of the pipeline is $22 million, and it is scheduled to begin operating in January 2011.

The project will save the district, its customers and property- tax payers $113 million in the next two decades, district officials have said. The cost of landfill gas will be about 48% of the price of natural gas. The price will be based on energy content, not volume.

Veolia Water Milwaukee is the private operator of the district's regional sewers, deep tunnels, wastewater treatment plants and Milorganite fertilizer factory. Veolia Water North America is a division of Veolia Environnement of Paris.

A separate division, Veolia Environmental Services, owns Emerald Park and provides trash collection services in southeastern Wisconsin.

Landfill gas is between 50% and 55% methane. Veolia would remove water vapor and contaminants before pumping the gas into the pipeline to Jones Island.

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