NCIP award brings positive light to David City
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - 11:38 pm
By Larry Peirce
Banner-Press Editor
Years ago I went to the Nebraska Community Improvement Program celebration when it was held at the East Campus Union at UNL. I was a daily regional reporter then, and I lived in Lincoln.
I have to admit my first impression was that it was a bunch of small town leaders who put together their scrapbooks of photos and articles to show how they had been improving their communities.
It didn't sink in to me then how much blood, sweat and tears the people - arriving in Lincoln from Chadron to Falls City and points in between - were putting into those presentations. Nor did it sink in how important those community leaders have been to the future prospects of their towns and counties.
It was a matter of perspective.
Now all these years later, I applaud the work that David City, its leaders and its supporters have done to put us on the map.
The methane pipeline project - which carries landfill gas from the state's third largest landfill to Henningsen Foods - gained the city and county statewide recognition at the 46th NCIP awards banquet held in Kearney on Friday.
There are other communities in the state that would jump at the chance to tap a source of pollution, which can be turned into positive "green" energy.
Other areas of the nation already are tapping the methane from landfills, dairies and other livestock facilities to produce power. Power providers LES and Omaha's MUD have been burning landfill gas for decades.
I suppose if other communities had the necessary supply and the nearby plant where it could be burned, their proposal would also face some opposition - as this one did here in David City.
I still find it hard to fathom how some folks would rather see this gas burned on a smelly flare coming out of a pipe at the landfill instead of using it in a plant which, in turn, uses millions of bushels of our locally grown corn each year.
But Butler County doesn't have a corner on resistance to change.
The methane project is the second "green" project completed this decade. The recycling of wastewater for irrigating at the local golf course means that up to 7 million gallons of water is not pumped from underground each year to water grass. You might remember that project also faced opposition.
What will be next?
Methane generated electricity?
No, it's not an automatic assumption.
There are still practical and political considerations for these new energy sources and conservation measures.
There's a high likelihood that some of those obstacles of the future may become less imposing as the cost of energy continues to climb.
And no one seems to be saying the cost of energy will not climb.
