The Carbon County Commission has approved a conditional use permit for a project near East Carbon that will create a product by destroying a by product.
The Bear Canyon Methane Emission Reduction Project, a venture by Global Strategies Corporation of Lakewood, Colorado, will burn off methane gas from the West Ridge Mine, which was closed in 2015. The gas was formerly vented into the open air. Methane is one of the most abundant greenhouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Global Strategies Vice President Collon Kennedy said, “We’ve entered into an agreement with West Ridge Resources to acquire the Gob Hole Vent Project. The project was operated by West Ridge to remove methane out of the mine to protect the safety of the miners. But said Kennedy, “Instead of venting, we are destroying the methane and that’s what generates the product of the operation.”
Kennedy told the commissioners at their regular meeting of Aug. 16 that Global Strategies plans to operate the project in the same manner as when the mine was in operation. But a 100-foot pipe will connect the methane extraction units to an enclosed flare about 45-feet high and 12-feet in diameter. “We will simply burn the gas that would otherwise be emitted from the underground workings,” he stated.
The flare unit is being custom manufactured for the project and will have a 98-99 percent destruction efficiency rating. It will be totally enclosed and no flame will be visible.
The volume of methane gas burned will be calculated and converted into an “offset,” or carbon credit, which will be submitted to a cap and trade registry in California. The carbon credits are purchased by various entities in order offset their own emissions to meet regulatory requirements.
Kennedy said the company will be constantly measuring methane at the extractors and flare, and because the Book Cliffs area mines have historically been “quite gassy,” Global Strategies anticipates producing more than 900,000 tons of offsets over the estimated 10-year life of the project.
The project will not produce a lot of jobs. Kennedy said at the commission meeting, “In terms of the overall level of activity, we’re probably going to have one to one-and-a-half people that will be contractors working at the site. We’re expecting to have someone at the site 3-4 days a week.”
But he estimated the project will have an impact of between $100,000 to $200,000 a year in wages and property taxes on equipment and improvements. In addition, because the project is on State Trust Lands, SITLA will receive about $30,000 per year in royalties.
Kennedy continued, “We’ll have 24/7 surveillance of the site which will be monitored from our office in Grand Junction, as well as an office or set up in Price. As a stipulation of the conditional use permit, the site will be enclosed by a 6-foot fence.
The Bear Canyon Methane Emission Reduction Project is still in the permitting process, and there will be a construction phase of about 30 days, Kennedy said he hopes to be destroying gas by some time in November.
Kennedy remarked, “We’re excited to be moving ahead and look forward to working in Carbon County.”
Coal mine project to produce carbon credits
Collon Kennedy presents a proposal for a Methane Emission Reduction Project