Drafter
Clerk 11/05/2025
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AN ORDINANCE relating to the sale of environmental attributes held by the county; authorizing the county to enter into an agreement for the sale of environmental attributes related to biomethane produced at the Cedar Hills regional landfill to Karbone Inc.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The solid waste division of the department of natural resources and parks operates the Cedar Hills regional landfill, located in Maple Valley, Washington, which receives over 800 thousand tons of municipal solid waste each year.
2. The breakdown of organic matter at the landfill generates landfill biogas as part of the natural decomposition of waste over time when buried underground. Landfill biogas generally is composed of 45% to 60% methane.
3. Landfill biogas can be processed to generate a high concentration methane gas that meets natural gas pipeline standards. Purified methane gas is also known as renewable natural gas, which is a direct substitute for geologic natural gas. The renewable natural gas includes biomethane gas molecules.
4. In addition to the biomethane energy content of the renewable natural gas, the beneficial use of the landfill biogas as a byproduct of the landfill decomposition process provides significant greenhouse-gas reduction and other environmental benefits when compared to the consumption of fossil fuel-derived natural gas. Those environmental benefits, as an extension of the energy content, are recognized as environmental attributes.
5. Environmental attributes related to renewable energy or other characteristics of a resource that are distinguished from the biomethane commodity can have financial value related to both mandatory environmental requirements and voluntary markets.
6. Bio Energy (Washington), LLC, ("Bio Energy") constructed a facility at the Cedar Hills regional landfill that can purify landfill biogas into biomethane. In 2011, Bio Energy began to purify landfill biogas from the Cedar Hills regio...
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