A contract, a new location and a delay

Friday marks one full year that the two parties came to a $180-million-plus, 20-year agreement to use the energy company’s “plasmification” technology to handle the city’s waste.

And to celebrate, Ottawa and Plasco are expected to finally sign the contract. At least Plasco CEO Rod Bryden thinks so. This time for real.

What’s behind the one-year holdup, when Bryden and council were in such a rush to approve this time last year?

“Two simple words: due diligence,” said Coun. Maria McRae, who chairs council’s environment committee.One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles. She says that the deal to eventually send 300 tonnes of garbage a day to Plasco is a complex one, and the city’s legal team wanted to “make sure every ‘i’ was dotted and every ‘t’ was crossed to minimize any risk to taxpayers.”

Plasco will use its “plasma gasification” process to turn Ottawa’s waste into a burnable “syngas,” a glassy inert slag, and water, all for $83.25 per tonne in the first year, with built-in increases for inflation after that. There’s even a chance the city could collect royalties from the company.

McRae had predicted back in May that officials would be signing on the dotted line within weeks (while Bryden made similar promises as early as March).

The councillor would not confirm the contract was being executed on Friday. But once the long-awaited event occurs, she promised the documents will be posted online as soon as possible.

Although the contract should incorporate the major aspects of the deal council approved Dec. 15, 2011, a few changes are expected, including the location of Plasco’s future commercial facility.

The city agreed to lease Plasco its land at the company’s current “demonstration site” at Trail Road and at 3704 Moodie Dr. for a commercial plant, at a rate of $10,000 a year per location.

However, Plasco now plans to build its new processing plant at the city’s so-called White Pit site,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses, near the intersection of Moodie Drive and Trail Road.

That change will require council approval and likely not cause too much fuss.

But another Plasco request expected to come to council in the new year should be far more contentious: the company will be asking for an extension on its first deadline.

Under the agreement, Plasco must meet certain milestones. The first is March 31, 2013, when the company is “obligated” to start building the commercial plant and have all necessary construction financing in place.

“Should Plasco not achieve these requirements by that date, the City may, at its sole discretion and with written notification, inform Plasco that it is terminating the agreement,” according to a 2011 city report.

Bryden indicated as far back as September that the company might not make that March 2013 deadline, and the Citizen has now learned that Plasco will certainly be requesting an extension. Under the deal, Plasco has until 2016 to ramp up to full processing capacity, but it’s unclear whether the company will want that deadline prolonged as well.

Consider what McRae had to say on the matter: “I can speak only for myself, personally, but if I were asked to consider and ultimately approve an extension of any deadline that had no risk to the city, then I would certainly approve that.”

And that’s what most of the rest of council will likely think as well. A six-month delay, they’ll say, won’t cost the city anything.

That may be so. But for Plasco to be miss its first deadline so soon after finally signing the contract will hardly instil confidence in those who are skeptical that Plasco’s technology will actually work. Indeed, in 2010 testing leading up to the 2011 agreement, the longest Plasco had operated its plasmification unit was for six consecutive days. And at a recent public meeting, Plasco officials explained that the company operates its unit in three-week “campaigns” to address specific issues, such as efficiency or emissions. It doesn’t appear that the company has ever processed waste on the scale that it’s expected to under its commercial contract with the city.

In the past, Bryden has pointed out that he is not currently under any obligation to handle a specific amount of waste from the city. As for councillors, they seem to be only concerned that taxpayers are protected.

That’s a good thing, of course. But meanwhile, time marches on, and garbage piles up in the landfill. How long will council wait for Plasco?

It’s already been seven years. In that time, no one’s been seriously studying other technological options. The Plasco deal is sole-sourced — the city never put out a request for proposals for disposing of waste, something council could have demanded last year before agreeing to the Plasco deal.

In fact, the only report that councillors saw on alternatives to Plasco was released while council’s environment committee was debating the issue in December 2011. And that study contained obsolete information about competing technologies.

City officials get credit for putting together a deal that seems to shield taxpayers from major risk. But they haven’t followed their own policies on procurement, nor did they conduct their due diligence on this file.

"The tracking system we now have within the facility allows us to track high value assets in real time and helps us comply with our specialist statutory licenses," said John Johnston, Health, Safety and Radiation Advisor at FMC Technologies. "We are now entering Phase II to extend the tracking system to other assets and production items within the facility. The tracking system is now being considered by various sites within our global organisation to assist with our production flow and streamlining throughout the business."

The Boston Networks solution consists of AeroScout Wi-Fi RFID Tags, which attach to the assets being tracked, and MobileView software, which allows staff to quickly locate needed items anywhere in the facility with an intuitive graphical user interface. The system is tracking components used in manufacturing petrochemical wellhead devices, which are commonly used to cap oil pipes on the seabed.

Due to the environment in which the devices are used and rigorously tested, the asset tracking tags needed to be waterproof and ATEX certified. FMC is also using the AeroScout system to track assets for which it is required to hold a license: the solution helps ensure that FMC Technologies doesn't breach its licenses and automates reporting for audits.

Boston Networks, a U.K. leader in the design, installation and support of high-performance Wireless and Intelligent Building Systems, was the lead systems integrator for this project. It selected the AeroScout solution for FMC because it works with FMC's existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, making deployment quicker and easier.

"FMC Technologies has a complex production environment with special requirements,Whether you are installing a floor tiles or a shower wall,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. making it even more important to have the real-time visibility into its processes that AeroScout enables," said Janet Chaffin, President at AeroScout Industrial. "We're proud of our work with Boston Networks to help FMC gain the visibility it needs to remove inefficiencies, streamline business processes and improve reporting. We look forward to working with Boston Networks to further extend the benefits of the FMC solution.A specialized manufacturer and supplier of dry cabinet,"