By Joe Pinchot
HERMITAGE — Hermitage Municipal Authority has been awarded a $350,000 grant for the sanitary sewer plant expansion, the third state grant earmarked for the project.
The $350,000 PA Green Energy Works! Biogas Projects grant was announced Wednesday by state Sen. Robert D. Robbins, Salem Township, R-50th District, and state Rep. Mark Longietti, Hermitage, D-7th District.
“It’s good news,” said City Manager Gary P. Hinkson. “It will reduce the dollars that need to be financed and that will have a good impact on what our rate structure has to be.”
Green Energy Works! grants support biogas projects that generate power and thermal energy, the legislators said.
As part of Hermitage’s project, the authority will upgrade its anaerobic digestion system to “cook” sludge and food and agricultural waste to create a gas made up of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The gas can be burned to generate electricity, which will be used at the plant and can be sold to Pennsylvania Power Co.
The treated sludge will be of such a high quality that it can be handled and sold or given away as fertilizer or fill, possibly eliminating the need to truck treated sludge to a landfill, officials said.
The project also will, among other things, replace the chlorine disinfection system for waste water with an ultraviolet system, and expand the plant so that it can handle 7.7 million gallons a day, up from 5 million gallons a day.
Officials have said that any grant money they receive will reduce a hike in user fees that will be implemented in 2010. Officials have not determined how much rates will go up.
The authority already has been awarded a $1 million for the project, and a $375,000 grant that is to go toward the digestion system. The Green Energy Works! also is restricted to help with the digester
The estimated expansion project cost is $32 million with primary funding coming from a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority low-interest loan — the agency known as PENNVEST is expected to act in March on the city’s application — and borrowing money from investors through a bond issue.
Officials already have ordered the digestion equipment for more than $3.8 million and plan to advertise for bids for the rest of the project in the spring.
The plant treats waste from 7,700 homes and businesses in Hermitage, Wheatland, Shenango Township, South Pymatuning Township and Clark.
