Skip ribbon commands
Skip to main content
Skip Navigation LinksEPCOR / Products & Services / Infrastructure / Projects in Your Area / Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant / Reducing Flaring and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

​Reducing flaring and greenhouse gas emissions

We're investing in ways to capture, upgrade and transform a by-product of wastewater treatment called biogas. This will reduce flaring and greenhouse gas emissions, reduce noise and provide a darker night sky. Key biogas equipment we will add at Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant includes biogas cleaning/compression, storage, piping, injection and an underground gas pipeline.

​ Biogas and flaring

Biogas is a by-product of the wastewater treatment process (mostly solids digestion). Today about 44% of the biogas created at Gold Bar in the solids digestion process is used for heating. About 56% is flared. Flaring is the controlled release and burning of gas. Flaring volumes are highest in the summer months, when there is less need to use gas on-site for heating (70% flared).

Let's talk

We believe in listening to and engaging stakeholders. Community input and involvement is an important part of our decision-making and we want to hear what you think about our initiatives.

 Biogas to renewable natural gas

Rather than flaring, there is technology to capture biogas, clean it and deliver it into the ATCO natural gas distribution system as a source of renewable natural gas. Upgrading biogas to renewable natural gas would mean adding biogas cleaning and injection equipment on-site and making an underground connection to the ATCO gas line that runs next to Gold Bar Park Road.

Location of biogas equipment

Any equipment added will be located within the fenceline and—as much as possible—within enclosures to minimize noise and visual impact. The underground connection to the ATCO gas system (as shown below) may have temporary construction impacts at the east end of Gold Bar park and may require replanting some trees.

 

 

Learn more about the other commitments
we've built into our long term plan.

Our commitments to you

{{settings.Title}}

{{item.Title}}