City staff has recommended that the city pause all efforts to develop a renewable natural-gas or co-digestion facility in Stratford at least until 2029.
Efforts to find alternatives to a previously abandoned plan to build a renewable natural gas plant at Stratford’s wastewater treatment facility may be paused until 2029 while city staff review how it would fit in Stratford’s overall strategy to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
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Following the city’s late-2021 decision to abandon plans to build a large natural gas plant at the site after a key funding agreement expired while mired in pandemic-related challenges, staff began exploring smaller scale approaches that would have less impact on the site’s neighbors while carrying a reduced price tag and less overall risk. That prompted extensive research, with staff reaching out to other municipalities that had pursued similar plans to see what would be feasible for Stratford.
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While staff had included consultant support to get such a project shovel-ready for the city’s 2023 budget, council opted instead to defer that budget item to 2024.
“So there really hasn’t been too much (work on this) in the last 12 months,” Stratford environmental services manager Johnny Bowes told councilors at a Tuesday infrastructure, transportation and safety subcommittee. “Also during this time in 2022, our department grew with the addition of the climate change programs manager. So with her on board, there’s a more clear direction for climate objectives… that didn’t really exist before.”
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With the city embracing or developing energy emissions and climate action plans, which included an emissions analysis that began this year, Stratford’s focus should be on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to meet its 2050 net-zero goal rather than immediately investing in a natural gas plant or similar initiative, climate change programs manager Sadaf Ghalib said.
That focus, Ghalib added, will involve reducing emissions generated by the city fleet, buildings and infrastructure. Once the city has achieved emissions reductions of 70 to 80 per cent of its 2017 baseline, the development of a renewable natura gas plant or co-digestion facility at the wastewater site might become a strong option for helping the city reach its net-zero emissions goal, Ghalib said.
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“Once we have a better grasp on where (our reduction measures) are going, we could consider further alternatives to help us meet our emissions-reduction goals,” city infrastructure director Taylor Crinklaw told the Beacon Herald Wednesday.
“We have identified that, with our plans in place, we will get to near-zero (emissions reductions), but we don’t anticipate getting to net zero, so there will be a gap. It’s undefined at the moment, but we kind of have an idea of what that might be,” he added, “so that’s a time for us when we can use things like the renewable natural gas project to help us meet our climate goals of net zero (through carbon offsets).”
Following a brief discussion around possible senior government funding for this type of project and whether any infrastructure upgrades are due at the wastewater treatment plant, subcommittee members voted to recommend that council defer this initiative until at least 2029, when the city’s corporate energy conservation and demand management plan is set to be renewed. All Stratford councilors will have an opportunity to discuss this recommendation at a future infrastructure, transportation and safety committee meeting, though, before it goes to council for final consideration.
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