Board wants incinerator re-classified – the importance of words

In the US state of Wisconsin, the Barron County Board of Supervisors wants the state Natural Resources Board to reconsider its classification of the county’s waste-to-energy incinerator at Almena. The reason is to save around US$7,000 pa in licensing fees.



The Barron News Shield reports that when the county built the waste-to-energy facility in 1986, it was hailed by legislators and state officials as the wave of the future and a replacement for landfills, which were being ordered closed. Since 1986, the incinerator has processed approximately 32,000 tons of municipal solid waste per year for the purpose of disposing of the waste and, at the same time, creating energy in the form of steam used by an adjacent cheese plant.



Since then, the Natural Resources Board has rewritten its administrative rules and reclassified the incinerator as a “municipal waste combustor.” The category of Municipal Waste Combustor did not exist in 1986, and the facility was classified as an “incinerator,” exempt from license fees under section NR 520.15(3) Table 2; Footnote 3, which provides: “The department shall waive the plan review fees and license fees for a processing facility or incinerator which has a primary purpose of converting sold waste into usable materials, products or energy.”



The exemption does not apply to the category of “Municipal Waste Combustor.”



The county contends that its facility is clearly an “incinerator” that has the primary purpose of converting solid waste into usable materials, products or energy. The county wants the Department of Natural Resources Board to modify the rules section to include Municipal Waste Combustor as a category of facility exempt from licensing fees.