Most Klickitat County residents know what "green power" is, most know that it is produced at the H.W. Hill Landfill Gas Power Plant north of Roosevelt, and most know that the sale of that "green power" helps to offset the costs of purchasing power for Klickitat PUD. But how many know how that power is produced?

The Landfill Gas crew work under the auspices of the Power Management department of KPUD. LFG is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by five full-time people and one part-time backup operator.

Rick Burk, site supervisor, is an employee of Energy Northwest, working under contract with KPUD. Darby Hanson is the LFG Project Engineer. Ralph Campbell, Leonard Swift, and Jeff Link are Operations & Maintenance Technicians.

"In a nutshell, we take raw landfill gas (roughly 59% methane, 37% carbon dioxide, 4% nitrogen and oxygen, and traces of various impurities) created from the decomposing garbage, compress and cool it to drop out water and condensable impurities, filter it, and pipe it to five large-spark ignition engines," said Darby.

Each 12-cylinder engine displaces 13,048 cubic inches, is turbo-charged with aftercooling, and produces 2,970 horsepower at 900 rpm. Each generating unit is rated for 2,100 kilowatts, for a total plant capacity of 10,500 kW. The power generated is transmitted back to Goldendale at 69 kV for integration with BPA. Currently, seven megawatts is contracted to other public utilities, and excess generation is sold on the open market.

Rick is responsible for the overall Operation and Maintenance of the LFG to Energy facility. He tracks environmental requirements, trends plant performance, completes daily, monthly and annual reporting, builds budgets and schedules power requirements in and out of the facility.

Darby was originally hired on a temporary basis during the feasibility analysis portion of the project in 1997. His duties continued through construction and into plant operations. After the PUD contracted for the plant management services performed by Rick, Darby took on various aspects of plant engineering, including future plant expansions, plant improvements and modifications, consultant interactions regarding air quality permit issues and gas field development.

Darby prepared documents for the design and construction of an enhanced gas cleaning system. The system significantly reduces engine maintenance costs, reduce engine emissions, and increase production. His next large project involves the feasibility of utilizing otherwise wasted engine exhaust heat to generate more electrical power without needing more fuel.

"Darby finds our problems, and makes the facility grow," said Rick.

Ralph Campbell is the Senior Technician and is responsible for data collection systems, electrical, instrumentation and control systems. Leonard Swift is responsible for maintenance planning and scheduling, coordinating safety meetings and building special fixtures to speed up and improve maintenance. Jeff Link conducts operation and maintenance of the power plant and is the well field technician. Jeff assists Rabanco Distribution Company (RDC) with the monitoring, adjustment and construction of the 148 well connections that currently supply landfill gas to the power plant. Miquette Ihrig is the backup operator-in-training.