Throughout his career, John Power has continually sought ways to extract the optimal utilization from solid waste. As solid waste director for the Pasco County, FL, Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWM), two programs exemplify that: a waste-to-energy (WTE) facility and the reuse of ash as construction material aggregate. The Pasco County Solid Waste Resource Recovery Facility in Spring Hill, FL, started in May 1991 and exemplifies the success of a public-private partnership that has lasted through the cooperative efforts of the county's ownership-Covanta as the private operator, and CDM Smith as the consulting engineer. Power lauds public-private partnerships as offering the ability to address issues quickly in an environment that requires such a response. The facility processes up to 1,050 tons per day of municipal solid waste, generating 31.2 MW of renewable energy sold to Duke Energy. It uses secondary sewer treatment effluent from a nearby wastewater treatment plant for part of its process water makeup. Another effective partnership is between the solid waste facility and university researchers. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection in December 2014 approved recycling of bottom ash from a WTE facility as a substitute for natural aggregates in concrete and asphalt pavement, along with use as base material under asphalt pavements, issuing Pasco County the first permit to do so. In partnership with the University of Florida, Pasco County recently completed a three-year research project for recycling bottom ash during which the chemical and physical properties of bottom ash went through a thorough testing and evaluation and was used for construction of a test road for long-term environmental monitoring. The efforts of the Pasco County ISWM earned SWANA's WTE Gold honors for 2015.
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