There is no such thing as a “safe” job in demolition. Because of the presence of heavy machinery, and the nature of felling buildings and related structures, every job comes with inherent risk. However, there is one job that stands out among the rest as presenting unique challenges for contractors—power plant demolition.

As coal-fired power plants across the country increasingly reach the end of their service life, opportunities abound for demolition professionals tasked with decommissioning and demolishing these structures.

Power plant work is attractive due to the detailed scope of work and nuances involved with the job, equating to significant man-hours and dollars for those able to win the job. However, the age of these facilities, variances between sites, and the complexity of taking down hung boilers combine to make these projects uniquely precarious from a demolition contractor’s point of view.

Over the last 12 years, there have been 12 power plant demolition deaths in the U.S., plus five more in the U.K.

But after two more fatalities occurred at an Ohio power plant in December 2020, the industry doesn’t appear content to stand pat in favor of the status quo in 2021.

In this issue’s cover story, we profile several industry leaders who have stepped up to sound the call for better power plant safety and accountability.

Joe Vendetti, the senior vice president of industrial services at Integrated Demolition and Remediation Inc., and Tim Barker, D4 program manager at AECOM, share their unique insights gleaned from a combined 60 years in the industry and offer common causes of these accidents and best practices for preventing such incidents in the future.

Additionally, National Demolition Association (NDA) Executive Director Jeff Lambert and NDA President Christopher Godek discuss forthcoming changes the association is making to help advance power plant demolition certification and compile a comprehensive body of knowledge to better educate contractors, owners, general contractors and other industry participants on necessary steps for safer demolition practices.

Old ways of doing business may be hard to break, but if there is a hope to reduce the number of contractor fatalities at power plants, the current measures being taken by the industry are going to be the first steps in changing the future of the industry.

Read “A call to action” on page 12 to see what actions the industry is taking to improve power plant demolition safety.

Explosion rocks Sun Services recycling facility

Sun Services’ C&D recycling facility in Beltsville, Maryland, was rocked by an explosion on the morning of Feb. 5 after a gas tank was accidentally fed into the recycler’s shredder. The gas tank was concealed among other construction and demolition materials, WTOP News reports.

Sun Services, which specializes in commercial disposal, residential demolition recycling, and construction dumpster rental, has been in operation since 2004. It built its new C&D recycling facility in October 2013.

As the company told Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine in a 2018 profile, Sun Services designed the 28,000-square-foot plant on five acres to house all material loading and processing under one roof to comply with local ordinances.

Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Battalion Chief Daniel Frost told reporters that a medium-sized pressurized gas tank was in with the recycling material fed into the sorting system, which was unknown to workers. Once introduced to the shredder, the tank exploded, setting off a blast that ripped through the building and shook neighboring facilities.

“It sounded like a bomb had gone off, and inside of our building everything was knocked off … phones were off the hook, pictures were off the walls. … All you could see was smoke everywhere,” Tina Funkhouser of N&S Towing, which is across the street from Sun Services, told WTOP News.

According to a report, Prince George’s County Fire/EMS teams were called to the scene after the explosion was reported.

Once at the scene, fire and EMS crews encountered smoke billowing from the facility and a fire. According to the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Twitter account, “While on scene, there was another explosion which preliminarily appears to have come from a recycling unit.”

Fire crews extinguished the fire roughly one hour after the initial blast. No injuries were reported.

Charah Solutions acquires Texas power plant, announces decommissioning

Louisville, Kentucky-based Charah Solutions Inc., a provider of environmental services and byproduct sales to the power generation industry, has announced its acquisition of the Texas Municipal Power Agency’s (TMPA) Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station and Reservoir in Grimes County, Texas, and will begin remediation and redevelopment of the property.

TMPA, which was created to supply electricity on a wholesale basis to its member cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland and Greenville, operated Gibbons Creek from its construction in 1982 until 2018.

The transaction was approved by the TMPA board and four member cities in a series of board meetings and city council meetings held throughout January.

As part of this agreement, Charah, through its subsidiary Gibbons Creek Environmental Redevelopment Group LLC (GCERG), now owns the 6,166-acre area which includes the closed power station and adjacent property, the 3,500 acre reservoir, dam and spillway. GCERG will be responsible for the shutdown and decommissioning of the coal power plant as well as performing all environmental remediation work for the site landfills and ash ponds.

GCERG says the company plans to redevelop the property in an environmentally conscious manner that will expand economic activity and benefit the surrounding communities through job creation, promotion of industry, support of the tax base, as well as restoring the property to a state that will enable it to be put to its best potential use.

The existing power plant will be demolished, and potential redevelopment uses for the property include solar, battery and energy storage options which utilize the existing transmission system, maximization of the reservoir’s potential, re-use of the rail system and other industrial uses.

EREF releases analysis on national landfill tipping fees for 2020

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) released its “Analysis of MSW Landfill Tipping Fees: 2020” report Jan. 29 based on information from 439 municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills in the U.S.

According to the report:

• 12 percent were large (i.e., accepting more than 390,000 tons per year);
• 46 percent were medium (i.e., accepting between 390,000 and 65,000 tons per year); and
• 42 percent were small (i.e., accepting less than 65,000 tons per year).

Of the landfills analyzed, the small landfills averaged 26,480 tons of incoming waste per year, medium landfills averaged 166,516 incoming tons per year, and large landfills averaged 809,455 incoming tons per year.

Small landfills accounted for the highest tipping fees for MSW ($55.72 per ton) compared with medium landfills ($50.87 per ton) and large landfills ($53.43 per ton). The average MSW tipping fee across the country was $53.72 per ton, which was a 3 percent decrease from 2019, when the average was $55.36 per ton.

Just as MSW tip fees fluctuated depending on the size of the landfill, they also fluctuated based on where the facility was located.

• The average fee in the Pacific region was $72.03. This included Alaska ($142.33), Arizona ($44.89), California ($58.48), Hawaii ($114.33), Idaho ($59.02), Nevada ($39.90), Oregon ($71.53) and Washington ($95.99).
• The average fee in the Northeast region was $68.69. This included Connecticut (no active landfills in state), Delaware ($85), Maine ($75.21), Maryland ($66.73), Massachusetts (not reported), New Hampshire ($74.34), New Jersey ($78.80), New York ($71.71), Pennsylvania ($73.45), Rhode Island ($115), Vermont ($101.95), Virginia ($53.43) and West Virginia ($54.66).
• The average fee in the Mountains/Plains region was $47.83. This included Colorado ($58.42), Montana ($32.06), North Dakota ($48), South Dakota ($51.22), Utah ($33.80) and Wyoming ($57.64).
• The average fee in the Midwest region was $47.85. This included Illinois ($51.71), Indiana ($36.27), Iowa ($47.07), Kansas ($42.79), Michigan ($42.77), Minnesota ($57.78), Missouri ($67.91), Nebraska ($41.47), Ohio ($45.39) and Wisconsin ($61).
• The average fee in the Southeast region was $46.26. This included Alabama ($32.93), Florida ($56.51), Georgia ($47.88), Kentucky ($36.32), Mississippi ($30.36), North Carolina ($45.97), South Carolina ($45.91) and Tennessee ($51.53).
• The average fee in the South Central region was $39.66. This included Arkansas ($30.53), Louisiana ($37.53), New Mexico ($38.20), Oklahoma ($44.76) and Texas ($42.22).

In addition to collecting MSW tip fee data, EREF also collected information relating to construction and demolition (C&D) wastes deposited at MSW landfills.

According to EREF, C&D waste is accepted at MSW landfills in 41 states and comprises roughly 12 percent of the landfilled stream. Of the 437 landfills surveyed, 277 had a specified gate rate for C&D materials, though the difference was largely negligible on average. The national average tip fee for C&D waste was $52.67. Fifty-eight percent of landfills set the same tip fees for MSW and C&D waste, C&D tip fees were lower than MSW at 23 percent of sites, and C&D tip fees were higher than MSW at 19 percent of the landfills.

In analyzing the fees, the report’s authors state, “A regression analysis on all tip fees collected showed a limited relationship between tip fees and population density, suggesting that the wide variation in fees is not necessarily associated with population density.”

W.L. French buys Massachusetts landfill

North Billerica, Massachusetts-based W. L. French Excavating Corp. has announced its acquisition of a landfill located in Winchendon, Massachusetts. The Winchendon Landfill, says the firm, is situated on a 14-acre portion of a larger 88-acre property.

W. L. French, which describes itself as a site excavation and soil management firm, says it will perform closure activities on the landfill in the future, including installing a permanent cap. Prior to the capping project, the site had been permitted by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to accept up to 800,000 tons of COMM-97 Unlined Landfill grading and shaping materials.

Limited options are available in Massachusetts to dispose of COMM-97 unlined landfill materials, says W.L. French, and many companies ship materials out of state to do so. “The opening of the Winchendon Landfill will help to better service the environmental needs of contractors and developers from across the state, particularly those located in the greater Boston area,” states the company.

“W. L. French has established itself as a leader in our region’s soil and waste disposal industry,” says W. L. French President Bill French Jr. “We are looking forward to expanding our capabilities and services with this acquisition. This also addresses the immediate need our state faces in regard to disposal options for unlined soils generated from large, urban excavations.”

The Winchendon Landfill began accepting materials in early January 2021, with hours of operation set as Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

W. L. French also works in partnership with Dudley, Massachusetts-based Rampco Construction Co. to help operate two soil reclamation facilities in the Bay State: Fish Road Reclamation Project and Dudley Reclamation Project, which are both located in Dudley.