Oregon Public Broadcasting

Federal officials announced Tuesday that a research fleet will relocate to Newport.  At the same time,  another significant project emerged on Oregon’s coast.

Rob Manning reports on efforts to simultaneously solve a local environmental problem and generate clean power.

A front-loader is tossing old fishing nets and crab pots into a big shipping container. Not long ago, the nets and pots were lying in the water off the port of Garibaldi.

Nir Barea with the federal marine agency, NOAA, says they were a problem waiting to happen.

Nir Barea: “In the course of fishing operations, nets and crab pots are being lost. When they become derelict, they keep on doing what they do – fish, to entangle and ensnare – that’s called ghost-fishing. And by removing them, you reduce that problem.”

Fishermen have always wanted the gear out – partly because the nets can catch propellers as easily as they catch fish. But pulling the stuff out used to mean fishermen would have to dispose of it themselves.

Garibaldi port director, Kevin Greenwood, says a new partnership makes cleanup easier.

Kevin Greenwood: “Instead of having to pay to have this material dumped, they can come to this facility and have it removed for free, at a huge cost savings to the small businesses here.”

As an added bonus, the debris doesn’t end up in a landfill. Christine McCoy is with Covanta.

Christine McCoy: “We fill up the container, and that container is brought to our partner, Schnitzer Steel. They pull off the steel portion, the magnetic portion, and they recycle those metals.”

To get to Schnitzer the shipping container travels 100 miles inland to Portland.

Here, Schnitzer uses big magnets to get the metal out. A big industrial-sized pair of scissors - called a “shearer” - slices through the tangled nets.

Operations’ director, Jamie Wilson says it’s not what Schnitzer’s huge machines normally tackle.

Jamie Wilson: “We recycle big stuff like automobiles, appliances, barges, ships, railcars. So, plastics and fishing nets?  Not exactly up our alley, but we had the infrastructure, it’s a great partnership, so that’s why we’re here doing this.”

Wilson is no stranger to this partnership. Schnitzer, NOAA, and Covanta Energy have run a similar operation in Hawaii for years.

The last stage in this “fishing-for-energy” partnership is in Brooks, Oregon. The fishing nets and crab pots are new – but they’ll barely register, considering the size of Covanta’s incineration operation here.

Brooks facility manager, Darby Randklev approaches two huge boilers. Together they process 22 tons of solid waste an hour, around the clock.

Darby Randklev: “The units are about 112 feet tall, and 60 feet in length. The main combustion process takes place – turns that steam into high-temperature, high-pressure steam to turn the turbines.”

Covanta officials, like Randclev say that turning garbage into energy is green – for two main reasons: it pollutes less than coal and it reduces the amount of garbage sent to landfills, where it will decompose and emit the greenhouse gas, methane.

Darby Randklev: “After you go through the recycling, and we’re all for recycling as much as possible, there’s an end product of municipal solid waste that this is the best way to process it, to handle it.”

Randklev says their emissions are very low, except for nitrogen oxide, which they’re working on. But garbage-to-energy isn’t “renewable” according to the state of Oregon.

Jillian Schoene with the governor’s office says that term is reserved for clean, naturally occurring sources like wind.

Jillian Schoene: “Much of what is burned in garbage incineration is not either organic or from the natural environment, and a good example of that is plastic.”

Sam Brentano: “We absolutely call it renewable, we got to get the governor to agree with that. I’m sorry, he’s wrong.”

Marion County commissioner Sam Brentano along with Covanta officials hope to establish “waste-to-energy” as officially “renewable” in Oregon.

Meanwhile, Covanta and its partner, Schnitzer Steel, are looking in British Columbia and California for more places to turn old fishing gear into energy.