В округе Куз в штате Орегон установили инсинератор для экономии средств и создания нового источника дохода

Coos County has a new way to save money and, potentially, to increase revenue. The Animal Shelter at 92960 Southport Lane, about six miles south of Coos Bay, has installed a propane-fired incinerator. Jason Patterson, the county’s animal control officer, said the equipment should be ready to use within a few weeks. In addition to Patterson, the shelter has two employees. He said the county has obtained a permit from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to operate the incinerator, but the burner came without a long-enough smokestack. Placed inside a three-sided metal shed near the animal shelter, the incinerator needs to be vented better, he said. A contractor is fabricating a longer smokestack, which will rise through the building’s roof when it’s installed. Patterson said the county has been working on this project about two years — and has been paying the DEQ for the privilege since. Construction began about a year ago after Coos County Commissioners authorized spending $73,500 of American Rescue Plan funds to buy the incinerator and prepare it for use. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package, was a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021 to speed the country’s recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. “The permitting was the hardest portion to get through,” Patterson said, because DEQ officials questioned the county’s need for an incinerator. Once county officials cleared that hurdle, they had to find an incinerator the DEQ would approve. “I had to add a secondary afterburner to the incinerator for the exhaust, for the particulate,” he said, adding that DEQ also required the county to install a computer to record the burning process and temperatures. Once it’s operational, Patterson said, the furnace would burn about 180 pounds an hour. The firebox has a 1,600-pound capacity. Sheriff Gabriel “Gabe” Fabrizio said the incinerator will save the county money in transportation costs and incineration fees. It pays a sanitation company to haul away animal carcasses. He also expects the county would be able to sell its services to area veterinary clinics. And then there’s the opportunity to use the furnace to destroy evidence that’s no longer needed. Evidence to be destroyed once was driven to Brooks, near Salem, for disposal. That facility closed within the past year, however, so the nearest disposal facility is near Tacoma, Wash. “We can’t actually ship evidence and drugs,” the sheriff said. “We have to escort it, so it’s two people out of the office for as long as it takes to get to Tacoma” and back. Fabrizio said the Coos County Sheriff’s Office eventually expects to destroy its own evidence in the incinerator as well, and to collect revenue from other jurisdictions that use the Coos Bay facility to destroy evidence, including needles and other drug paraphernalia. He said he’s already talked with area police chiefs about bringing their evidence here as well, instead of taking it to Tacoma. Patterson said the county still doesn’t have a DEQ permit to destroy evidence in the incinerator. “That portion of the permit still has to be done,” he said. “But once it’s up and running, then I will go ahead and reapply … it’s a lot more money to get it to that point of burning evidence.” He said the current permit costs the county about $700 a year. But the state’s permit for using the incinerator to destroy evidence could cost the county $3,500-$4,500 per year, depending on the materials and tonnage destroyed. But when the county achieves that, the incinerator should provide a revenue stream. “We will probably be the only one in the state of Oregon … that’ll be burning evidence,” he said. Once the incinerator has burned through its cycle, Patterson said, “the only thing I will have to do is … to transport the ash to the county dump.