Construction Updates
Construction Updates
One thing we love to do is keep building and improving as much as our finances will allow. We often get excited about big projects and will overlook some basic ‘hygiene’ projects that need attention first. This spring has been filled with hygiene projects that despite our lack of overwhelming excitement, will be good for the business, and our community.
Extended Litter Fence
We all know the Gorge is windy, but Dallesport is really windy, like really really windy. Despite our best efforts with water bars and wind tunnels we still can’t contain every scrap of litter that ends up on our site. In 2019 we installed the biggest fence we could afford at the time, but it didn’t cover the entire leeward section of our site. Every once and a while we’d get a polite call from our neighbor asking us to clean up their property. We’d volunteer some of our crew to pick the ‘field of dreams’. With our new expanded fence field of dreams work should really drop off.
New 3-Phase Electrical
As part of our ‘expanding capacity, reducing emissions’ grant from Portland Metro we are moving towards electrifying all of our stationary plants. We currently consume about 1.0 gallon of diesel for every ton of material we compost, which is a staggering amount. It is one of our top priorities to reduce that number and it all begins with new electrical service. The aim is to replace existing diesel equipment one by one with electrically powered equipment as they run out their useful life. The bonus good news is that our provider, Klickitat PUD’s 2024 power supply forecast is for 100% carbon free energy in line with the Clean Energy Transformation Act.
New Roof on The Snipes Building
Our site manager, Amber, would tell us there were leaks in the building, but it wasn’t until a really rainy day that I saw 15 buckets on the floor catching rainwater that we realized how bad the problem really was. A new roof is a big investment and should last a while so we did a ton of research and landed on a metal roof capable of supporting solar panels. Our other building in Dallesport is covered in 20 KW of panels and we know that we’ll want the same in The Dalles some day, hopefully soon.
Biofilter Replacements
Our site runs a reversing aeration pad to control temperature and oxygen levels in our compost piles. A key feature of this system is a biofilter which scrubs odors, VOCs, ammonia and other potential pollutants before they hit the air. Biofilters last a number of years depending on construction and usage. This spring we replaced both biofilters with fresh and enhanced material to keep our site clean and well functioning.
Air Conditioning
For years we have been able to survive on the radiant cooling system that uses well water to cool the building. But summers are legit hotter and it’s not cutting it on the hottest of the days. Yesterday we installed A/C so that our team doesn’t get a brain scramble by noon on the warmer days.