By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – An explosion at the city’s methane recovery plant April 19 harmed no one and should not cause unpleasant odors, City Manager Dean Workman said.
Workman said the city has received no complaints about odor from an explosion at the city’s methane recovery facility.
“The odor is just gonna start building up,” Workman said. “It doesn’t happen right away.”
Workman said he received a call about 5 a.m. that day that one of two turbines at the facility — part of Riverview Land Preserve but owned and operated by Riverview Energy Systems, owned in part by DTE Energy — had exploded.
But after a search across the country, a larger flare, used to eliminate waste gas, was located in Findlay, Ohio. Once installed, a process that takes a few days, Workman said the flare should alleviate any gas smell caused by the explosion.
The facility’s current flare was only capable of burning about 40 percent of the methane, Workman said.
The facility is computer operated. No one was inside at the time of the explosion.
The city receives a royalty for for letting DTE extract methane from its landfill.
Workman said the turbine will have to be rebuilt, a process that could take months.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.