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RIFLE, Colorado — A new composting facility is up and running on the west side of town, and the owner could not be happier if he were a prize hog wallowing in …
Well, you get the idea.
Cacaloco Compost, the creation of longtime local waste handling and composting expert Jim Duke, opened its doors for business on July 11. A week later, it is “running at about 90 percent,” said Duke.
He is still awaiting delivery of sufficient wood chips, lawn waste and other materials to complete the formation of his composting beds, at which point the operation will be ready to hit its full stride, he said.
In his first week of operations, Duke said, he has combined large quantities of wood chips, produced by a new wood chipper at the Garfield County Landfill, with lawn debris, the contents of removed from area septic tanks and what is known as “cake sludge” from the city of Rifle sewage treatment plant, to get his process going.
Soon to be added will be tanker-truck loads of the contents of porta-potties.
From the general public, Cacaloco Compost is taking delivery of any amounts of grass, leaves, food waste, paper, cardboard, wood chips, sawdust, hay, straw and manure, at no cost to the delivering party.
“Our goal is to have the most comprehensive organics recovery facility around,” Duke said.
Duke was in charge of the composting operation at the South Canyon Landfill, operated by the city of Glenwood Springs, until late in 2009, when the city opted for another contractor to run the operation.
The Rifle operation is based on using wood chips, lawn waste and other material as a filter medium for the sludge, including the contents of porta-potties.
The bacteria in the sludge heats the mixture up to a temperature that kills the bacteria and other organisms and turns the resulting product into usable compost.
“It's all going pretty smoothly,” Duke commented on Monday. “We're not getting it all yet, but we're rapidly approaching the level that we'd achieved at South Canyon.”
Rifle city administrator John Hier is pleased with the results.
Noting that Rifle has assisted Duke's start-up by waiving part of the rent for his city-owned site, Hier said city officials are happy that Duke chose to be the first tenant at the city's Energy Innovation Center along Highway 6 west of town.
“The city fathers were very pleased when he selected our area to relocate, and we think his operation is in line with the notion the city had developed for the Energy Innovation Center,” Hier said.
The innovation center, which has been nearly five years in the planning and preparation stages, and which currently features 12 acres of solar array and the Cacaloco Compost operation, is the city's bid to become a home to “green” businesses in the future.
“One of the things that Rifle gets out of the deal is he's taking sludge from our new wastewater treatment plant and putting it into his composting operation,” Hier noted.
That means Rifle avoids the cost of taking its treated sewage sludge elsewhere for disposal.
jcolson@postindependent.com
Well, you get the idea.
Cacaloco Compost, the creation of longtime local waste handling and composting expert Jim Duke, opened its doors for business on July 11. A week later, it is “running at about 90 percent,” said Duke.
He is still awaiting delivery of sufficient wood chips, lawn waste and other materials to complete the formation of his composting beds, at which point the operation will be ready to hit its full stride, he said.
In his first week of operations, Duke said, he has combined large quantities of wood chips, produced by a new wood chipper at the Garfield County Landfill, with lawn debris, the contents of removed from area septic tanks and what is known as “cake sludge” from the city of Rifle sewage treatment plant, to get his process going.
Soon to be added will be tanker-truck loads of the contents of porta-potties.
From the general public, Cacaloco Compost is taking delivery of any amounts of grass, leaves, food waste, paper, cardboard, wood chips, sawdust, hay, straw and manure, at no cost to the delivering party.
“Our goal is to have the most comprehensive organics recovery facility around,” Duke said.
Duke was in charge of the composting operation at the South Canyon Landfill, operated by the city of Glenwood Springs, until late in 2009, when the city opted for another contractor to run the operation.
The Rifle operation is based on using wood chips, lawn waste and other material as a filter medium for the sludge, including the contents of porta-potties.
The bacteria in the sludge heats the mixture up to a temperature that kills the bacteria and other organisms and turns the resulting product into usable compost.
“It's all going pretty smoothly,” Duke commented on Monday. “We're not getting it all yet, but we're rapidly approaching the level that we'd achieved at South Canyon.”
Rifle city administrator John Hier is pleased with the results.
Noting that Rifle has assisted Duke's start-up by waiving part of the rent for his city-owned site, Hier said city officials are happy that Duke chose to be the first tenant at the city's Energy Innovation Center along Highway 6 west of town.
“The city fathers were very pleased when he selected our area to relocate, and we think his operation is in line with the notion the city had developed for the Energy Innovation Center,” Hier said.
The innovation center, which has been nearly five years in the planning and preparation stages, and which currently features 12 acres of solar array and the Cacaloco Compost operation, is the city's bid to become a home to “green” businesses in the future.
“One of the things that Rifle gets out of the deal is he's taking sludge from our new wastewater treatment plant and putting it into his composting operation,” Hier noted.
That means Rifle avoids the cost of taking its treated sewage sludge elsewhere for disposal.
jcolson@postindependent.com
