PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The nation’s largest landfill owner wants to team with a Bend-based company to turn 25 tons a day of Portland-area trash into fuel. The process involves vaporizing the waste at temperatures of up to 20,000 degrees.
The proposal for Waste Management’s Columbia Ridge Landfill in Gilliam County is an attempt to get the first “plasma gasification” plant working in the United States.
The project is a joint venture between InEnTec of Bend and Houston-based Waste Management. The two organizations hope to build the plasma gasification plant by the end of this year at the landfill near Arlington.
Oregon environmental regulators issued a draft permit for the commercial pilot project Monday. It’s open for public comment through Aug. 31.
