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Covanta waste-to-energy plant fully recovers from devastating fire

LORTON — After a two-alarm fire shut down their facility in February of last year, Covanta Fairfax in Lorton has resumed operations.

The fire inside the waste-to-energy plant raged for nearly two weeks, and fire crews battled the blaze for just as long.

According to Covanta’s website, the Fairfax facility – which serves 900,000 Fairfax residents – processes more than 3,000 tons of waste a day and converts the waste into enough renewable energy to power 80,000 houses.

“We make energy from garbage,” said Covanta spokesman James Regan.

After the fire put the facility out of commission, the trash for Fairfax residents that would have been processed at the facility was diverted to the King George Landfill near Fredericksburg, said Fairfax County Supervisor Dan Storck. It cost the county more money because trash trucks had to travel further south to deposit loads.

After almost a year of being out of commission, the facility re-opened in December of 2017 and has been updated with better technology and safety mechanisms to prevent another fire from happening.

“The recovery has been excellent. They’ve fully recovered,” said Storck.

The fire’s cause is believed to have been caused by a spontaneous combustion in the garbage. The fire took place where the trucks unload or “tip” their garbage, in what’s known as the tipping floor, and then spread to the waste pit – where all the waste is held. The rest of the plant was relatively undamaged.

Covanta had to replace the roof of the tipping floor and also make upgrades to prevent and fight fires, Regan explained.

The first thing they are doing differently, Regan said, is keeping the tipping floor separate from the waste pit. That way, if a fire does break out in the trash that has been tipped out of a truck, it won’t have the potential to spread to the pit to ignite even more combustible trash.

Covanta also added thermal imaging cameras.

“If you’re looking at a pile of waste from a long way away, you may not see that there’s something smoldering underneath it, but with a thermal imaging camera you can spot that kind of right away,” Regan said.

Covanta also added remote operated fire monitors and water cannons for the safety of their employees and firefighters. They upgraded their sprinkler system and added a non-combustible roof system, as well as other upgrades and new procedures.

“We did a lot in a year,” Regan said.

Supervisor Storck wanted these safeguards in place, and said, “I’m satisfied with what they’ve done.”

Trash facility fires – which can be caused by batteries thrown in the trash – have been increasing, Regan noted.

According to Recycling Today, “In the 12-month period ending April 2018, news organizations reported 347 fires in waste and recycling facilities in the U.S. and Canada compared with 277 reported fires in the previous 12-month period. More alarming still is that in the first four months of 2018, the rate of reported fire incidents has been 93 percent higher than in the same period in 2017.”

Recycling Today goes on to note that “While these yearly increases could be part of the normal cycle, they are perhaps indicative of an ever-growing number of lithium-ion batteries in the waste and recycling streams, hotter/dryer environments and the increased volume of material being processed domestically in light of China’s recycling restrictions.”

Near Covanta is the highest point in Fairfax County – at what used to be an old county landfill. Storck explained that this old landfill is set to become a park.

The park’s highest point will boast a view of Mason Neck, Crystal City, MGM National Harbor, Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and where Potomac and Occoquan Rivers merge.

Trees will be planted trees and benches installed.

“I’m excited about turning it into the park,” Storck said.

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