A Victor Valley wastewater plant works to use food waste to make renewable energy

VICTOR VALLEY, Calif. (KABC) -- Satellite images show the largest methane emitters in California are landfills... far more than the oil and gas sector or dairy farms. But the solution to landfills' greenhouse emissions problem might already be in place.

A collaboration between Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority and renewable energy company Anaergia demonstrates how existing wastewater treatment facilities can be converted into resource recovery centers.

"What I never envisioned was the fact that we could do something this significant with regards to what it does for the environment," said Darren Poulsen, the general manager of VVWRA.

Solid waste has produced limited amounts of renewable natural gas at the Victor Valley landfill for years, but last year the facility repurposed these 330,000 gallon digesters to process food waste which is delivered to the facility by truck. Becoming the first wastewater treatment plant in the state to inject renewable natural gas made from wastewater solids and food waste into a utility pipeline.

"Post-consumer food waste. We're talking about food waste that comes from outdated milk products and outdated food products that would normally make its way to a landfill, now come here," said Poulsen.

When the gas comes out of these massive digesters, it doesn't have far to travel to get to the Anaergia Biogas upgrader, that's just right across the street.

It's in upgrader that the raw biogas is scrubbed of impurities and pipeline quality renewable gas is created and injected into the southwest gas system.

"There's enough capacity just in the waste happening in our processing facilities and commercially to fill this facility many times over," said John Hutson of Anaergia.

State law requires every municipality to divert 75% of its organic material away from landfills by 2025. The proximity and size of the Victor Valley facility shows the process could be done at virtually any wastewater treatment facility, even though there are fewer than three dozen similar plants in the U.S.

"When you think about the fact my staff here at a wastewater treatment plant already knows how to operate digesters, they already know how to handle gas. It's utilizing a great resource that every community has and we could all put this technology to use," said Poulsen.

What makes the technology so important is that it can be used by many landfills struggling to become more eco-friendly.

"There's hundreds of thousands of wastewater treatment plants just like this. They have the opportunity to bring in slurried food waste that currently is just being landfilled and use that food waste at their facilities to generate even more renewable natural gas," said Hutson.