Casella Waste Systems (Casella), in partnership with Rudarpa, officially broke ground on a renewable natural gas (RNG) processing facility on May 19, 2021, at Casella’s North Country Environmental Services (NCES) disposal facility in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. Project partners and local officials took part in the ceremony, celebrating the start of the project that is the first of its kind in New Hampshire. The project is expected to provide significant environmental benefits as well as dozens of jobs and increased tax revenue for the local economy. “We’re thrilled to see this vision begin to take shape in Bethlehem,” said Chair and CEO of Casella, John W. Casella. “We’re grateful to our partners who helped develop the infrastructure that will lead to opportunity and environmental benefits for the entire state of New Hampshire and look forward to bringing the additional economic benefits to Bethlehem for years to come.”
The facility is designed to capture landfill gas which is currently being flared and separate it into marketable gases, with primary emphasis on methane and carbon dioxide. Once processed, the RNG will be transported by truck for injection into existing pipeline facilities owned by Liberty Utilities.
The emissions reduction from converting the landfill gas into a transportation fuel is estimated to be 78,000 tons (70,760 tonnes) of greenhouse gas emissions annually, which is equivalent to taking more than 15,000 passenger cars off the road. While acknowledging his family and most especially his grandchildren who attended the ceremony, Rudarpa representative Joe Darling said this project was all about the future, “both in protecting our environment for future generations, and in moving forward together. We look at this as the first of many potential opportunities with Casella and our other partners, and we really want to thank everyone involved in this project for their continued support,” said Darling. “The construction phase of the project is estimated to take 13 months and is expected to create up to 30 full-time jobs. Once operational, up to 12 full- and part-time jobs are expected to be created to allow the facility to produce at capacity. A grand opening will be scheduled for the public to tour the facility once it is completed.”
