The facility will offset costs Kern County already has on its books, eventually leading to millions in savings over time while reusing organic waste to create commodity for the community.
- KCPW's compost facility at Shafter-Wasco Landfill is nearing completion, expected to be operational by August.
- The facility aims to reduce costs by internalizing composting services instead of using private entities.
- Features include an air curtain for energy conversion and a closed-loop system for managing leachate.
- Kern County Public Works Manager Dave Lee asked the public to refamiliarize themselves with what goes into the green bin as the facility gets closer to going online to minimize disruptions.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The Shafter-Wasco landfill is nearing the end of some pretty big changes. I'm Sam Hoyle, your neighborhood reporter. As you can see behind me, the compost facility that we started talking about back in October 2023 is almost ready to come full circle.
The project is comprised of a handful of larger components, one of them being this air curtain which takes large pieces of wood that previously would have either sat for decades or been buried, and converts them into energy. Lee also noted there are a few other ways that the county built out this facility to reduce, reuse and recycle.
"We have 10,000 gallons worth of containers here on site. That is going to be collecting leachate, which is derived from the decomposition process of the organic material, we're going to recirculate that leachate right into the composting facility," said Lee. "It really is this, from start to finish, closed-loop concept of recovering and recycling your organic material and then also having a beneficial use on the back end, in and around our communities, our parks, our roadways, and even in our homes."
As we reported back in October of 2023, Kern County Public Works is looking to bring its composting in-house to not only provide a service, but save money on something they're already doing.
"Long term. When you look at the cost savings associated with owning and operating our own facility, you can internalize a lot of those costs so we have equipment that's hooked up to the grid, where you reuse, we're recirculating liquids and leaching. There's a lot of cost savings that the county can do by keeping everything internal."
That's Dave Lee, the new Public Works Manager leading this project and was one of the integral parts in helping get it off the ground. For him, to see how far it's come is astounding.
"The fact that we are mere months away from actually finishing construction and having an operational compost facility, it feels great, not only as a county employee, but as a resident of Kern County that can bring their material to this facility and realize that eventually, the material you're generating in your house is going to become a finished compost in the future."
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