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reduce the annual carbon emissions of the
Municipality,” says Jarrod Peckford, Supervi-
sor of Environmental and Public Services with
the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
“Not only will the project reduce the methane
generation within our region, but it will show-
case a technology that can be utilized glob-
ally to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted
from landfill operations. Annually landfill op-
erations contribute 4-5% of the global carbon
emissions which could be reduced through
the aerobic bioreactor process.”
There is a wealth of talent and knowledge
supporting SALT’s technology. The company
is working closely on the Fort McMurray proj-
ect with a team of three tenured engineering
professors, two post-doctorate fellows and
three graduate students fromWestern Univer-
sity in London, Ontario. The group is studying
the site’s aerobic reactions, leachate condi-
tions and also conducting emissions analysis.
Another associate, Dr. Irena Creed, of West-
ern’s Biology Department is Canada Research
Chair in Watershed Sciences and a director of
the Africa Institute. Dr. Creed believes that the
aerobic technology is the key to preserving
groundwater particularly in areas where it is
the only source of water and can be easily pol-
luted by landfill runoff.
SALT is also working with Conestoga Rovers
& Associates, the largest environmental engi-
neering firm in Canada. Located in Waterloo,
Ontario, the firm is responsible for a significant
number of landfills in Canada as well as sites
in the U.S., Mexico and South America, Baxter
said. One of their engineers, Dr. Tej Gidda, is
an expert in anaerobic and aerobic reactions
and is very interested in SALT’s technologies.
He said that the SALT approach is “the single
greatest modification and change to the land-
fill business that has occurred in the last 100
years,” Baxter recalled. Dr. Gidda visited the
Fort McMurray site, and said that “there is ab-
solutely nothing like this in the entire world”
and that the process has “the opportunity of
changing the environmental, financial and
social consequences of most organizations in
countries around the world,” Baxter said.
Upon completion of this project, the Region-
al Municipality of Wood Buffalo will deploy
the technology within the regional landfill as
phase 2 to degrade the waste in that facility af-
ter it has been filled and closed in 2018. SALT
intends to build its client base in other regions.
“We believe our growth will be very rapid and
that our services will be in great demand both
domestically and internationally.”
