Environmental Services Division - Regular Meeting

It is 05:30.

We'll call the order. First item is roll call. Both member Blairs, member Hampton, member Grow are present in chamber. Member Lekel and Member Barnes are online. And Member Chandler is absent, but we might join us later. Is there any public comment for items not on the agenda?

Chair, there's no public comment for any other items.

Do does anybody have any changes to the agenda? Alright. The agenda is approved unanimously.

Okay. Can we ask for a motion for approval of the agenda?

Don't have to. It's Robert's rules.

Okay.

So minutes. Does anyone have any corrections or changes to the minutes? Right. Minutes are approved unanimously. Board business. Mr. Stringer from Mozart.

Good evening. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm Steve Stringer. I live down at White Rock. We've lived here in the community since 1991. I'm a retiree from Los Alamos National Laboratory. And in my role in their technology transfer office, I crossed paths with Mozart DevCo when they were in town. So this is going back three years or more when they were in town getting to know the area with the concept that you're gonna hear more about in just a couple of minutes. Let's do a sound check.

I wanna make sure that Michael Dwinell and Mark Rutledge and others from my team can hear. Michael, you hear us?

Yes.

Yes. Can hear you, Steve.

Okay. Very good. I'll I'll turn it over to you here in just a moment. But I first approached an helica going on two years ago with this concept. And since then, you you may know that most recently, we gave a full presentation to, the full council, when I met in White Rock about six weeks or so ago.

And this board was singled out to us or mentioned to us as, Steve, you ought to get in front of this board and and tell you about this. So this is following up from the the council's suggestion at that time. Now on the phone with me, I'm gonna turn it over to Michael Dwinell. With him is Mark Rutledge. They are the cofounders of Mozart DevCo.

They have come out here multiple times in Northern New Mexico, got getting to know our area and meeting with various principles such as this county, North Central Solid Waste Authority, Okei Owingeh, San Diego Alfonso, Pueblos, etcetera. And, Michael, I'm gonna turn it over to you now, and you'll introduce OmniCT when you're ready. Go go right ahead, Michael.

Alright. Thank you, Steve. And thank you and Helica for making the suggestion to Steve that we we come and and share with the board. So thank you to the board for allowing us for a few minutes in your evening. We, we appreciate that.

We're always welcome an opportunity to talk about projects and specifically ones dear to our heart, such as, the waste energy plant that we have envisioned for North Central New Mexico. We have been welcomed, by the Okay Wingate, North Central, Los Alamos, Espanola, the the surrounding communities, the state, the county, you you name it, folks get it. And, what we hope is that this first plant will be just exactly that, first in a series of plants for the state of New Mexico. And so we're we're focusing on bringing the right teams, to be able to execute on a great plan. We evaluated technology and engineering partners and really believe that that we've got some superb, industry leading technology to introduce to you this evening.

By way of Canada, we have on the screen Madison and, George, and they're gonna talk about the OmniMozart plant. And they'll go through a deck here. And then perhaps we'll take some calls or I say calls, most of your right there. So you just say what you like. Ask the questions you like.

Right? And, we'll take the questions following. And then, Mark, I hope you'll be able to contribute as well here at the end. That that'll be super. So I'll I'll I'll ask Madison to to start and and introduce himself, introduce Omni, and, that part that George would like to also contribute is is welcome. So, Madison, take it from here, sir.

Certainly. Thank you, Michael.

And Yeah.

Yeah. As Michael has said, thank you, county here, for giving us the time to come before you this evening and present along with Mozart, our technology, and how we think we can best serve the region in in dealing with the the waste in the area. So, yeah, my name is Madison Connors. I work for Omni Conversion Technologies. Conversion Technologies is the CT at Omni CT.

We are, based in Ottawa, Canada, but have offices and, people kind of spread out, North America from from Houston to the East Coast and to the West Coast. So we're we're quite diverse in the footprint, partly because waste is quite diverse, and our technology looks to solve the problem of, waste piling up in landfills, and rather put it to good use. So we we see and acknowledge reduce, reuse, and recycle, but we think there's always gonna be the fourth r with the residuals at the end of that. And the residuals are what we look to, to deal with. After we've done all the, the first three layers, that's when Omni, CT comes into play.

So my my role in the company is to help, projects in the early stages and, stewarding them as we're designing them and figuring out, the best way to configure. My background is in chemical engineering, and so I kinda like to play in the the cross roads between technology and commercial development. George, if you want to give an introduction of yourself too, go for it.

Sure. I so my name is George, and I'm a relatively new member to the commercial team over at Omniconversion Technologies. So as Madison mentioned, we have some different projects that we bring to light. And as he, you know, conceptualizes them and and puts them together, I sort of come along in dot i's and cross t's wherever I have to. So that that's more or less what what I do over at at Omni.

Very good. Thanks, George. So we've Omni's been working with Mozart here for well over, eighteen months now, actually. It's crazy how fast time flies, as we've, shaped up this project, with them, and so we're we're excited to kind of, give you guys a brief on on where we're at with the with the technology and the process. Angelica, I'm sorry. We're gonna kind of, play tag here in terms of flipping through slides, so bear with me as I I try to kinda signal that. If you wanna jump to the next one there, please. And I'll I'll say at the on front, our value proposition is is mostly presented in our name. Omni, in terms of omniferous. We are omniferous in what comes into the plants, and we are omniferous in what what goes out of our plant.

That being said, black bag garbage is what we we target. We target everything that doesn't need to be sorted or perfectly, yeah, perfectly sorted before it goes into a plant. So we we built our technology from the ground up to be able to take everything, including the kitchen sink, pun intended there. And then on the back end of our technology, we produce a syngas. And that syngas is, while not a traded commodity, that syngas is what goes into the production of, fuels, of power in the case of our project here, or any other chemical feedstock that that a project might want to look at.

We are particularly interested in in helping the the local grid, with this project, by backstopping some power generation in the region. And so that's what we'll talk about today is is waste to power. So the company has been around for, well over twenty years in a couple different, formations. We've spent a lot of time slowly testing the technology and building it up. This is the processing of solid waste, and so it doesn't scale very nicely, which means you take a lot of effort and a lot of steps to slowly progress, through demonstration facilities, pilot plants, lab scale, and and we we've, taken our time in doing that due diligence.

Our last facility, and, Elica, if you wouldn't mind jumping to the next slide there, was based in Ottawa, Canada. We processed a 135 tons per day of waste. And important to note, this project is targeting about 200 tons per day, so we're looking at a small increase, about 40% over that capacity of mixed municipal solid waste. So that photo on the left there is physically someone jumping up, onto the hopper or conveyor belt that goes into our gasifier. And as you can see, it kinda looks like a raccoon got through the waste.

There's no real amount of sorting. There's no real amount of shredding or preparation. It is what comes off the back of a garbage truck and gets dumped into the feeder versus the photo on the right is, what's typical of some other gasifiers. Often, gasifier technology is not fit for purpose, and they're trying to adapt technology made for the pulp and paper industry to the waste industry. And quite frankly, we've just seen some pretty large scale failures so that, unfortunately, they have a bit of a dampening effect on the industry as a whole.

So we don't like to see that happen, and we're trying to trying to find a way around it. I'll see the the photo on the left. That facility is, ran for about seven thousand hours. We had environmental permits, based on scenario or campaign operation mode in Canada. Once we proved what we said we wanted to prove, then we had to shut it down.

So we are kind of a failure of our own success in that regard. And, Helica, if you wouldn't mind jumping to the third slide now, please. So this is, very similar to the last, but with a lot less pretty pictures. It is really to drive home the point about sorting. While we don't require sorting into our facility, and we could really look much like a transfer station you might see for solid waste, we do often sort for for the project economics.

If it means recovering, iron or if it involves recovering copper and or aluminum that comes in the waste, we find that those are really cheap process operations to do, but it comes back to our reduce, reuse, and recycle. We get a lot of reuse out of those materials in addition to sorting recyclables that can be upcycled in a very advantageous or cost effective manner. Once we take a rip once we get those materials out, that's when we get to the residuals, and that's when we get to the omniglassifier. Now all this to say is that sorting can be very expensive and very, prohibitive to cities and regions that don't have a thousand tons per day of waste. And so we find that combining with the Omniglassifier, that amount of sorting, it enables communities in areas such as yourselves that are not a Houston or not a Denver, sized city to really enable, more circularity in their waste, value chain.

Jumping to the next slide now, please. And this is really the core of of how we do so. We do not produce any char or hazardous waste or any wasteful, byproduct for that matter because we've taken a two stage approach to our gasifier. This is this is not total a Toyota Corolla, for example. This is truly an off road vehicle that is meant to take everything in.

And so we have a two stage gasifier that converts all of the solid waste into syngas that's useful for power generation, through these kind of four main steps in our process. I won't go into much details other than to say, it's akin to, an incinerator on steroids. Really, we get really hot, and we take everything in on the front end. That's where the similarities with an incineration, stop. After that, we do not produce the hazardous char or ashes as, you might be familiar with, and we are able to take that syngas and and produce, whatever product or chemical the project needs on the back end.

And then the last one there. Thank you very much. So, again, this is kinda giving some examples of of what can go into the gasifier. I know I I use the term everything quite a few times, but sometimes that that point just it's, we take it for granted. And so here, there's a couple items on the left there that you can see.

Municipal solid waste literally being the black bag trash that goes into a garbage truck, but we take everything else, including waste plastic that is often headlined in the newspaper. For example, now that China doesn't take those clam packs that are strawberries and raspberries coming. That is a very ideal candidate for gasification as it has a lot of energetic energy in it and useful for for power generation. We've we have other projects that we're working on, things such as rail ties that are contaminated with creosote or wind turbine blades that have not very much useful you end end of life use and take up a lot of space in our landfills. And so often you'll find landfills are no longer taking those.

We are able to cut those up and shred them up and give them a useful second life. On the back end, we talk about the fuel and the production and and what this project in addition to making the waste go away, what kind of product is it gonna produce? And so this project is focused on electricity, enabling the the local grid and giving more electrons to industry in the area. But we are agnostic, honestly, of of what product is produced. We can go to, any number of other chemicals.

We typically see, renewable natural gas and and methanol, in addition to hydrogen pneumonia as kind of common items or common products that, different jurisdictions are are focused on these days. That's that's probably a quick overview of Omni. George, please butt in if there's something I've missed. But, yeah, I I think, I wanna thank you guys again for giving us the time. We're happy to take questions. I know this technology is not run of the mill or off the shelf, so happy to kind of alleviate any any questions if there are any.

As Madison had pointed out, it's not an incinerator. So this is this is gasification. And, you know, whatever doesn't get passed through into the syngas comes out as as like a vitreous slag, basically, a non non leachable thing that can be used as like, you know, rail ballast or road aggregate. So that's the that's the other thing that that is sort of like a co product if if it's needed. If it's not, then it's it's not harmful at all.

Good point. Thank you, George.

Look. I think that was really good. Thank you, Madison, and thank you, George. And I I think we have a special name for the what what George pointed out in Slack. I think it's isn't isn't that called OmniRock?

That's correct. Yeah. We've we've Correct.

Good.

Yeah. Good.

Taking the naming it.

Okay. That's that's always welcome. Well, we're at the right place at the right time. Always, there are there are hurdles that are inherent in any project. What we're attempting to do is not create any artificial hurdles in this in this, project timeline.

And and what I would say for the boards is that, as Steve is there, please, while we've got to Madison and George here and Mark, ask any questions you may have. And and, if we don't give them answer, I I think Steve has a, has a booking he can reference. Okay? I always put Steve on the spot, there. And but, you know, there's there's a lot of of good that can come out of a joint effort in combined communities working for a solution.

And the alternative is to continue depositing in landfill. Ten years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, fifty years. At some point in the future, when will communities make this decision and say, let's let's put a transformation plan at the end? Let's let's use this bound energy. Let's find some useful purpose and do something other than put it into a landfill.

And and and we're providing that opportunity here, we believe. And we'd like to see, obviously, multiple plants throughout the state of New Mexico embrace the success that we we envision for this plant. And it will it will necessarily involve a change in some of the communities and how they handle the collection process. It will reduce hours of hauling and material and so forth. I I hope that we see, in future technologies and advancement where we've got some mobility fuels in a in a hub, spoke spoken hub situation for plants that are smaller in size to serve smaller communities.

You know, there's there's endless amount of imaginative resources, and, we've we've gotta put them into practice. And I think we've got a great team with Omni, and, of course, the engineering team that we have to support that. The yeah. We've we've been talking to a number of those, and Hatch Engineering seems to have a really good fit. Their Calgary office is also in Houston. It works well for us. So with that, I'll I I'd like you to to ask any questions that you may have while we've got everybody here, and, we'll we'll go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you. Questions or comments from the board, in chamber? Go ahead, Sue.

Yeah. Can you all hear me?

Yes.

Great. Thank you very much for that presentation. I the I appreciate the detail of how how the plant would work, and, it's very interesting technology. I'm I just have not heard yet where you are in the actual planning and construction of this at Okay Owingeh. Have you signed the contracts? Do you have a timeline? Or is or where are we in that process?

Great. Would you handle that? Thank you.

Okay. Great great great questions, Sue board member, Sue. So we are in that what what a lot of great engineers have discovered and and determined that there were some several stages before actual commercial operations and construction and and those things, and I think Manish can talk speak to that, we would be in in what's considered the FEL one stage towards the end. If you said that there was front end, engineering studies and and preparing and planning, so we've worked on, the lease with Okay which will be located at Okay Owingeh on undeveloped land, of course, north on 285, North Of Espanola. In fact, it's it's fairly much 12 to 15 acres there that runs along where Jamec is, and that's Jamec's electric.

Yeah.

I know what you mean.

Pull up. Right? Right. And they've got a transmission line with Tri State that they will that we've talked about improving so they can handle the load. And the size and scaling that we see as a base case would be 200 tons a day, as Madison said, for intake of feedstock.

It'll be closed system. In addition to that, we envision 10 to 12 megawatts into the line, and that'll be baseline power. Okay? We've also worked with North Central Solid Waste for feedstock, agreement, for delivery for the life of the plant, same as we are asking for Los Alamos County. And, you know, it there's a there's a significant and and, of course, an offtake agreement and power purchase agreement with JMEC and or Tri State.

Right? What what we would see as as a base case is how do we what we hope we can do is work within the communities to say, let's help North Central Solid Waste with their basically, it's somewhat of a marketing plan in in community wherein I say marketing. It's more educational, informative of how we might better prepare some of the feedstock that would come to the plant. You know? And and what what are some other directives there? It's common to use roll off bins. Right? And and that's that's decades of use in what we're familiar with. And so how do how do we help the communities learn, hey. This is good material.

There's energy here. Let's get it to the plant. And and Madison really hit the nail on the head with the hammer when he said, let's reduce our use of material. Right? Let's reuse what we can. Let's recycle that those materials which we can. And then the residual, let's get to the plant. Let's let's produce power from that. And but how do we do that such that we we don't have emissions? We're not creating more problem.

Well, Omni's got an incredible technology for it. And and I'll be the first to say that that we're really excited about having a syngas that, dare I say, there's an opportunity where we could do sometime in the future a plant that would use that clean hydrogen stream, capture the carbon sequester that, right, and then use fuel cells into the grid. In this case, we've gotta find what the engineering comes back and says, this is the base best case. Can we do linear generators and power to the grid that also reduce the same? So so there's there's a lot that that are exciting.

You asked on the timeline, and I I get a little distracted when I start talking about things I love. Right? Thank you, Sue. So, once once we've hit the FID, the final investment decision, although we're there in in terms of where we feel about the project, we would look at somewhere between thirty six and forty months to commercial operation. We've got about four or five months of of start up and start down, and Mattis can speak to that on the plant, what we envision there. But I I I hope I answered some of that. Right?

Yes. It sounds like you are not at the point yet of of project of of starting to build the plant, and you have significant hurdles to overcome before you get to that point.

It's it's

Okay. I get it. It's it's new technology, and it's certainly new to us. But just before you leave since or before I end, I'm wondering about air airborne emissions from this. Are is everything an enclosed system, or will there be air quality permits necessary? Is there carbon emissions, you know, greenhouse gas concerns?

Madison, do you wanna take this? My answer would be, there are always concerns, and the the key here is to plan for those to resolve and find the solutions. What we we estimate from the plant itself, no NOx in in emissions. We qualify for the stringent any any air emissions that California board would require, and I use them as an example. Okay? And and that's key. Madison, do you have a a comment on that?

Yeah. I'll say from from Omni's gasification standpoint, the gasifier doesn't produce any air emissions, so we're not, like, an incinerator from that point of view. How the syngas is used to produce power, yes. You you will have an air emission point at that point. We have, quite a bit of experience in working in different states, and we've, I think, fallen under the minor source air permit as a facility.

And so we we see that as just a much more favorable pathway to to regulatory permitting. Coming from a petrochemical background for industrial sized plants, it is a nice change of pace from for myself, quite frankly. But there are a lot of specifically, yeah, talking about NOx or or there's a lot of ways that we can tailor that exactly to whatever the permit, requires.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, member Barnes. Member Lackel?

Hey, guys. Just wanna yeah. Thank you for the presentation. It was great. Pretty exciting. If you guys can get it rolling, I think it's anything we can do to kinda, you know, diversify our energy reliance on, you know, far away locations and bring it closer, then it's super exciting. So you stole my first question, which was the one about permits. What's so we then so the process is we would ship our waste via roll off bin down to you guys. You guys then process it through the facility. Then we just buy we buy the power back from you guys? Or or what's the what's the cost on the like, from a county perspective?

So so, Mark, you you why don't why don't we hand it off to Mark, our CEO? And, I think we may be muted.

There you go. Can you hear me now? Very good. Yeah. It's always dangerous to ask you to speak because sometimes I don't stop, especially when talking about about this plant. Yeah. That's a good question, Eric. Thank you. Yeah. Do you deliver, the waste roll up to the the plant on Okay at Wingate, and we would process it into Syngas and on-site, generate electricity to the grid.

We will be selling that through power purchase agreement, for our plan to, JMAC or or Tri State. If if you wanna buy electricity from from them on a power purchase agreement, you're you're welcome to. We're we were not asking for that at this point. So, your cost is going to be savings, really before from the hauling cost, taking it 20 miles round trip, Steve, to, from from Los Alamos Eco Center to the plan instead of the Yes. Yeah. 100 miles one way to, to the landfill.

Yeah. We take it to Rio Rancho. It's a pretty far away, and then we have to go down to Los Los Lunas soon even further. So that would save us a significant amount of driving.

Yeah. The bottom of hill, you turn left instead of you turn right. Yeah. Exactly. Basement put to me. So, yeah, I think you you you've realized tremendous cost savings in your waste handling by by, you know, by this with this agreement. And, and the electricity will be servicing the entire region, clean, reliable, energy, available twenty four seven.

And I think, you know, like, another benefit, like, right now with especially recyclables and with well, gas having been less expensive, you know, to make plastics is that the the demand for recyclables is is dropping, unfortunately. So it makes it harder for us. So it sounds like your plan can process that as well. So some of those higher level plastics, you know, if we could aggregate or so sorry. Sort those out, you know, that that's to our benefit too because this we just can't really use those. What other ones? I think that's, you already hit that one. You know, is is your technology coming in or it's gonna be built, obviously, here? Is the technology coming in from Canada? Like, do you have tariff concerns in terms of your time frame?

I'm gonna let Madison address some of that with George, but but here here's what I I wanna also comment on, and Madison touched. And that is that that we recognize these plants as we build multiple plants. At some location, there are wind turbine blades that get retired. Now there's a certain generation of wind turbine blades that the plant, it would end up being crushing them, but it would be the slag of OmniRock. Whereas, I I think, Madison, you touched on some of the the characteristics of some of the newer blades that actually, have bound energy as well.

And and so so that to that point with tariffs, we're living in the time that we're living in. And when we begin making those orders, it's there's a lot of unknown going forward. So when we're doing the pricing and the the cost analysis, we have to put in a wide range and birth of where we think it is and what could happen. So good news. We've got great friends in Canada who actually, are excited about working in in projects for us. Right?

Yeah. And I'll just I'll just add, while there's some unique pieces to the puzzle on our scope, and we have a couple fabricators and suppliers that we work with quite hand in glove for for years to develop that skill and expertise, Most of the project, we could we could look at shops in New Mexico, in Houston, in Colorado. Like, we're not we're not beholden to a particular fab shop, so to speak. That is a scope that we would cost out and find the most economic for the project at the time.

Cool. Thank you. Can I I have one more question for you guys, and and I'll leave you alone? You know, with something like this, I'm guessing you just have to constantly feed it. Right? Like, you don't you don't can't just turn it off. You gotta constantly feed it. Do you have any feedstock concerns in terms of quantity and material and getting enough and keeping enough quantity and material in Northern Mexico?

Yeah. What we have you wanna have that, Michael?

We go go right ahead. You you're familiar with it as much as, you know, we know it.

Sure. Sure. Our our primary feedstock suppliers will be North Central Solid Waste in Los Alamos County. We know you're you're not going to be bringing this waste on a regular clock, say, during the week. We do we will have some some buffer stock for our plant on-site as well as possible. We we don't wanna store a lot, but the but the, we will be storing enough so that the the plant can run twenty four seven without interruption.

Alright. Sounds good.

We're not going to be storing fuel, which is which is another thing we will be generating it and and the internally, the syngas, and and feeding our, the electronic conversion, whatever the whichever route we plan to go there.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you all. Much appreciated.

Thank you. Thank you, Eric.

Each member of that call. Anyone else? Go

ahead.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Hi. I'm Carly.

Carly.

I have a lot of questions. I think what you're presenting is extremely interesting, but I'll just limit it to a few. So I'm wondering what potential contaminants could impact the site and surrounding community. And I'm wondering if you guys have had any assessments or sampling done at your existing sites to characterize what kind of contaminants you you might create in this process.

Yeah. They're very, very valid. Very good question. So we do take everything in the front end. So that means we're gonna have all sorts of heavy metals and components that would be toxic to someone if they were, concentrated enough.

For example, if you put a thermometer in there, there's gonna be mercury in that bulb. Right? And that that mercury is gonna go through the process. When I mentioned that we do a two stage gasification process, that second stage is really where the magic comes in as far as making this, safe and capturing those contaminants in a beneficial manner. That second stage goes up to about 1,600 degrees Celsius.

Sorry. I I should really know the Fahrenheit number, but it it's ridiculously hot. And so what that does is it turns everything, that is carbon based into a gas, and we get value out of that as syngas. And everything that isn't carbon based, it oxidizes. And what that means is when we cool it down, it turns into this glass like substance.

That was the the slag, the Omni rock that Michael and George had referenced earlier. Now, unfortunately, I don't have a sample on my desk. Otherwise, I'd I'd hold it up to you and and show you what it looks like, but it is this black like obsidian glass. And because you're heated up so hot and then cooled it down so rapidly, it actually encapsulate encapsulates all the heavy metals and anything that you'd be worried about as being harmful. We've done t c TCLP testing on that, which is a leachate ISO standard to understand what kind of contaminants can leach out, and that's where you actually grind it up.

You pulverize the substance. You let it sit in water, and then you test that resulting water for any contaminants that may have leached. We passed it with flying colors at the Ottawa facility. Many of them were were nondetect, which you're not even approaching the allowable limit with the result of nondetect. So we are, yeah, we are very confident in the process as a as a means to, take in everything, but also deal with those those nasties that come along for the ride at the same time. If I'm never down in in Los Alamos County, I'll make sure to bring a a sample of that so you can you can touch and feel it for yourself.

Make sure you wear gloves. And how do you I'm sorry. Did you say that that was called OmniRock?

Yeah. How

do you manage it? Like, what do you do with it after it's

So we've had we've had it, qualified as synthetic aggregate in concrete production. So instead of mining aggregate from the earth, this OmniRock can be used as the strength enhancing component in in the production of concrete. We do find, though, talking with companies such as, like, LaFarge and and others, we just don't have the volume that they're interested in, so we're not we're not big enough for them. So we've also had it qualified as an abrasive, so in the production of sandpaper. Black Beauty Sandpaper has has looked at using our our aggregate as the abrasive component.

We've also looked at using it as rail ballast, as George mentioned earlier. So the the rock or the granite that's typically used for for a railroad to keep the rail ties in position, we could also use our Omni rock for that because it's nonleachable and nonhazardous to the environment.

Okay. Thanks. And then I was wondering about the properties of that syngas. I'm assuming it's flammable, but is it toxic?

Yeah. What what makes it valuable is that it's it's flammable because that means we can get some energy out of it and produce electricity. But kidding aside, yes, it it would be toxic to someone because it is hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is dangerous as all fuels, would be to someone if they were, exposed to it, but this is, very standard process, just as natural gas in in in your pipes are and going to your furnace or your or your water heater. So we'd be able to easily and and routinely take care of of, use in production of bathroom gas.

I'm just wondering if there was a release. Do you guys have any kind of, like, emergency plan for your site or any kind of evaluation of what the impact on the surrounding community could be?

Yeah. So the the first level of a release would be to actually, a controlled release. If you if you detect something is wrong at the facility, you actually go to flare. And and what happens in a flare is that you fully combust the syngas so that is no longer an issue. You are releasing that potential energy through combustion as you you get rid of or you oxidize that carbon monoxide and make it no longer an issue.

But that that is the immediate. That is, like, the the two seconds into an issue result. The two minutes into the the issue is you you shut down the plant, and you stop feeding it waste, which means you you choke off the production of that syngas very quickly. These are all emergency plans and procedures that are very common and necessary to get the permits for operation of the plant in in the first place. So very routine in in what we did in, Ottawa for this specific plant, as well.

Okay. And then, the last question I'll ask is so I'm guessing you'd be hiring people from the local community to run the plant. Is that correct assumption?

That's correct.

Do you guys have, like, a health and safety plan in place to protect your workers from potentially, like, contaminated equipment or exposure, things of that nature?

Yeah. It speaks to the the full facility. That'll that'll come in in due time. But, yes, we would be leveraging health and safety procedures and practices and policies that we developed for our technology at our facility in Ottawa, and they would be used to reflect local conditions and local requirements as well. You have to take into consideration the exact site, different egress modes, and different utilities, and risks specific to the the site as well. They those would all be taken into consideration.

You mentioned local jobs. May I offer an observation? Yeah. We're designing the plant for a thirty year life cycle. So these are careers, not just creating a job for a couple of years.

And the headcount for our our plant is 30 plus. And overall across New Mexico, we see potential for upwards of 10 such plants concentrated in in large cities like Albuquerque and Las Cruces, a couple in Santa Fe, a couple in in in the the mid sized towns, etcetera. So when you do the math and each one of them takes somewhere around 30, it it mounts up. But the important point I wanted to make is that these are long term jobs. They were gonna be relatively high paying because they're in a very specialized high temperature with toxic materials, etcetera, to be worked with.

Good question. Good points. Thanks. Great.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much for, answering those questions. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you,

mister Blair.

Hi. Can you all hear me?

Yes.

Yeah. I gotta just say, again, thank you for the presentation. It's really cool technology. I think, I wanted to ask about, I guess, scalability. So you said it's a 15 to anchor or 20 acre site. So, I guess my question is is once it's down, is it is it down and and basically, we're going to process no more than 200 tons a day? Or if, let's say, you know, Los Alamos is in and, you know, the If if other folks in the region get interested, can you actually scale the plant up?

If if I may answer that, and and I know Madison's got we we all like to do this. The the what we envision here is the feedstock agreements to support the plant at the optimal 200 tons a day, and and and there's an excess of that. However, we Mark and I have personally been on the ground over not just the last two years, but this is this is running year four where we've we've actually been in the community talking, and we've talked not only with the Hilton Head, Buffalo Thunder, San Ildefonso, the the Sinai groups, the other communities. You you you look at the other Pueblos that we've talked with, Dakota Transfer, small transfer units that that we feel once we are further along in the process of planning out the plant that, anyone who wants to bring waste, we don't think we'll exceed the capacity. However, the plant can be increased in capacity, alright, in terms of its throughput, and Madison can speak to that.

When when it comes to modularity, we we hope that we can help with Omni as as in this partnership we have with Omni for building these that will scale them to the community with with opportunity for that community to grow over thirty years. Right? So you we're not gonna build in a a set that well, now we we reject the material that comes. There's there's that opportunity, and and I think it'll be embraced throughout the counties and in the in the district. Right? So, Madison, do you have something to speak to that?

Yeah. I can say kind of on the, on the there's the near term through debottlenecking and some configurations that we could do, probably get about 50% more capacity out of the installed infrastructure. If we wanna go beyond that, then we're looking at putting or plunking down another train beside it and using common utilities. So, yeah, the the takeover the world plan is we could do it. It just takes a little bit more space.

Yeah. One one landfill at a time. Right?

Yep. Exactly. There we go. Yeah.

No. No. Thank you. That's that's good to know. The other or another question I had is is you mentioned basically twenty four seven operations. So then what about things like maintenance? What happens if it goes down? Kind of back on the health and safety thing? You know, I imagine there'll be, you know, SOPs or whatever in place, especially if if the workers are actually working on something that's actively running. So can you all speak a little bit about that?

Yeah. We we plan for two, turnarounds a year. One would be an annual, very kind of traditional chemical plant turnaround where you shut down for, ten days, and everything is routine maintenance at that point. You're you're bringing in all the trades. You're you're planning for preventative maintenance.

You're prematurely swapping out pumps or, exchangers. You're you're you're looking for corrosion inside of pipes preemptively. So that that is really about getting ahead of the curve, and that will plan, far in advance and and and work with the, utility to know, hey. You're not gonna get power for these ten days because we're gonna be down. We'd also be working with county and and any other source of of waste as well to say, hey.

We gotta stop for a couple days and and deal with that waste differently for a few. The other turnaround that we would do, on the six month, is more of a it's also preventative, but it's a it's a quick check. So it's a couple days, come down, make sure everything is is good, before turning it back on. These are thermal chemical processes, and so that is the necessity for a twenty four seven. Once you get up to temperature, that's when you see your efficiency, realized. And so you wanna you wanna you wanna get up there and stay up there, and so that's what these are designed to do.

Awesome. Thank you, Madison. And then my my last question. With the the end products and fuel, is that some like, you mentioned that basically the, you know, plugging into the electrical grid is is kind of the primary focus of the one down here. If if that were to change, I guess, are are the end products pretty much, you know, canned as as far as, for lack of better terms, this is an end product no matter what you put in, or is it customizable where if, you know, the area becomes more interested in, say, hydrogen energy, that you actually can, I I guess, switch the output somehow to, scratch that edge?

Yeah. The the latter. So we produce a syngas, and that syngas is agnostic of of what it then goes in to be converted to. If, yeah, if, say, we were running the the the power scheme for five, ten, twenty years, and then hydrogen became the next best thing, you would have a a capital expense, obviously, to swap out those linear generators or or engines or what have you, for, the hydrogen production unit. But the production of syngas, the gasifier, that would all remain the same. All the waste handling and sorting equipment would all stay the same as well.

Awesome. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you, ma'am McGraw.

I'm good. Everyone else stole my questions. So

Member Chandler, do you have anything?

I'm good on this, actually. A lot of questions I had and stuff have already been asked.

Excellent. Memorabilia? Yeah. It's fine. You have good questions.

Yes.

Hi again. I know you thought you were done with me. I was just wondering if you guys have plans in place for resiliency against wildfires and if you've planned for what the impact could be if a wildfire did reach your facility and do significant damage or any amount of damage.

I I wanna Madison, I I know you're gonna have a great answer, but if I may, one of the unique characteristics about the location that we've chosen with Okay Iwinge and say with Juan Lovato and governor Lujan and, former governor Phillips. It was this was formerly a a lumber yard, if you will, and it was, equipped with water systems for the case of fires. And so for for that entire, acreage that where the lease is going to be, it just is a unique fit. Now I couldn't have told you that that's exactly what was going to happen or where we would be, but it just turns out that that happens to be a an a, attribute in in a in a win along with the fact that there's an ingress, an egress lane for 18 wheeler trucks coming in and off of 285 along with a weigh station that already exists. Right.

And a lot of undeveloped land there, that that they're looking for. How can we perhaps, see this as an opportunity for, really, a great add addition to the baseload of power. Madison, talk about the plant itself and and what what you envision. Yeah.

I I Michael gave you some very site specific intel there currently. I would just add is, yeah, we we would I've been involved in gas plants, design of gas plants in the Boreal Forest up here in Canada, which are quite dense and a lot of fuel value. We've had a lot of wildfire issues in Alberta and BC over the last few years if you're if you've if our news has has made its way down south, often the mediation efforts to that are are really a burn radius around the plant and around the fence line. And even with large forest, that's that's kind of very modest setback. But other than that, it's about materials of construction.

And most of the facility is is is very resilient to to embers, and and heat gain because it all it's all made of steel, quite frankly.

If I may. Yeah. Madison, if there is an order to evacuate and that has happened, how much time does it take to down and safe the facility such that people can leave?

You're talking a couple minutes. You're you're pressing the big red button, and then that is all safety instrumented system safety instrumented system, that automatically brings the facility to a safe position.

Okay. Thanks.

Okay. Go ahead.

Okay. Yeah. No. I was just thinking of the possibility of an explosion with the gas and the fire. But, yeah. Okay.

That that's a great question. I'm happy to because there is a big differentiation between any chemical plant in us, and it comes down to pressure. Our operating pressure is that of blowing up a party balloon, quite frankly Oh. Versus the operating pressure of most chemical plants is hundreds of PSI. And so that just means the stored potential energy inside the facility is is just tremendously less. And so if you are to have a catastrophic incident, there's just not as much gunpowder in there. And by not as much, I mean fractions of a percent.

Okay. Great. Okay. Thank you. I'm really done this time.

Thank you, member Blair. I have one question. Will you will a plant receive concrete?

I'll speak to it from the technology side, but I won't be able to comment on if it's coming in in a truck. We can handle concrete. It can go into our facility. It comes out as slag. If it is very large, like someone's breaking up a a driveway, well, that's not gonna be, not gonna go into conveyors well. And, the bigger thing is it just doesn't provide any value as syngas and, therefore, power production. So you you wouldn't wanna put it in, from an economic perspective.

Thank you. Are there is there any public comment? And, miss Califf, if you want, come to the microphone and state your name. And we'll allow you to ask questions also.

I can. Okay. Thank you. So I'm Barbara Califf. I was very excited when I read about the presentation to the county council. And so since then, I've just been trying to learn what I can online. And so I have a couple of questions. One is, do you have a a plant operating using this technology that you've just described?

Our demonstration facility operated in Ottawa, Canada, for many years. It is no longer operating, because it was permitted, to to be a test campaign site. So as soon as we proved what we said we wanted to prove in the technology development, we had to we had to take it down. And so that, unfortunately, we can't go and kick it today, but, we have a lot of test data and, slag from from that demonstration facility.

So do you have enough financing to build this facility in an property?

You know, we're we've lined up financing, and we continue to there's always a process. And it it's something that you're it's it's always exciting to bring in investment partners and capital for to be deployed. And, what what I would say is that in the big picture, some point in time, the state of New Mexico, in the sovereign wealth fund, in the energy funds may begin to look at making available funds to build waste energy plants in the state of New Mexico. In the performance of the plant, it ends up producing as an annuity would. And yet you're you're you're keeping the capital deployed within state, and it'll replace some of the power that you might have, from other resources, energy resources, if you will.

And and that, that's always attractive. So, our our present model is private equity and, our and credit facilities for the plant.

Thank you. Yeah. So one other question. I was reading about the products, and, apparently, other facilities that use that do gasification, it said that they they couldn't make enough by selling electricity. So they preferred to sell hydrogen and the other products that you mentioned rather than electricity. But of course the exciting thing when I read about the project here was that we're gonna turn our trash into electricity. So can you comment on that?

Mark Yeah. Would you like to Yeah.

Sure. That's a that's a very good question. And we've and Mike and I have spent quite a bit of time as you would expect on the financials over the last two or three years. First of all, there's there's tax credits that that fall into the financial equation. The the the plant will be profitable without the tax credits, but they certainly add quite a bit of comfort level. We'll also be monetizing other products yet, but we won't really know the full extent of that until we get to the engineering phase. For example, we will be, sequestering, and capturing the carbon. Right? We'll not be releasing the carbon to the atmosphere. We will not do that.

There are several ways you can monetize carbon, however. And we we've looked at several. We don't know which way we're going to go with that yet, so we're not we haven't made any announcements. But there there's quite a few ways, we can monetize, and I plan to monetize the carbon, in this, in this system. It will be captured and sequestered and not released back yet.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Califf. I'd like to thank Mr. Stringer and the Omni team. Excellent presentation. And if you guys have updates, feel free to contact miss Gourlay, and we'd love to hear him. And thank you for your time.

You're welcome. Thank you very much, mister chairman.

Thank

you. We appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you. Mister chairman, may I approach and leave business cards with you all? Please. Thank you.

Very much.

I'm sorry. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next item is, I believe, review and discuss our work plan, our 2026 work plan at the request of a council. They they thought it'd be good if on a quarterly basis, we we take took a look at.

Okay. So we didn't do anything wrong?

No. We didn't do it nothing we know of.

No. So, yeah, this item, council just approved your work plan. So kudos to you all on the great work. And in the they would like us to review our work plan, quarterly. So I just thought it it's already March time frame, so this plan is calendar year for 2026. So and, also, we have new members on the board, so I thought it would be a perfect time to get everybody, pointed in the right direction.

Where is the work plan? I had it open, I thought. Let's see.

Okay. I attached it. I did. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. No. They didn't have any, changes to what you all recommended, so that's good. And they heard your question about what should we do with plastic what's the next step with the plastic bag, research that we presented. So they've asked us to return to council on April. I believe it's the seventh. Yeah. It's a Tuesday. It's the first yeah. April 7.

So if you're interested in attending that together, you know, hear more information, you're welcome to join. So just as a little refresher for some of our, newer members, so we highlight what we did last year, and that's for you to see what did we learn, lessons learned, and then what we have planned for this coming year. So we mentioned that we would support the food composting program and food waste prevention education. That is gonna be rolled up into our new contract agreement with Firebrand Creative, and they'll be helping us develop climate action, engagement, and education for the community. And this is one of the targeted areas under zero waste.

So we'll be working on that. And then two point one point two is a really, it's it's pretty lofty. There's a lot in there, but it's basically supporting everything that's in the climate action plan for year one and two, and ongoing recommendations. So that includes energy efficiency and electrification retrofits, promoting EV adoption, adopting green building standards, developing commute trip reduction programs, expanding community partnerships, conducting vulnerability assessment, engaging in public climate education campaigns, supporting the local food system, conducting recycling, composting, outreach and education, promoting green stormwater infrastructure and low impact development, developing an EV infrastructure plan. We just completed that.

So woo hoo. We can knock one thing off of our list. Now we just need to implement it and then expand mixed use transit oriented development policies. So let me just say that a lot of these items, anything having to do with education and outreach will fall under the firebrand contract, and they will be helping us build out campaigns to promote EV adoption, to, recycle more, to prevent food waste, to encourage energy efficiency and electrification. So that's all under that umbrella.

What's a little bit outside of that is developing a commuter trip reduction program, conducting a vulnerability assessment. And then there's other people in the county that are also helping with this work, like adopting green building standards or community and economic development department is taking the lead on those pieces. So what we could do is, you know, provide input and just stay up to date and make sure everything's moving along. Yeah. So we had a win this week with the county accepting both our fleet conversion and our community wide EV charging plan.

So that takes off this item. So thank you so much for for that, and thank you to Sue for helping and all your input with that. I really appreciate it. And then two point one three, receiving updates and provide input on climate action education and the outreach program. So we have Firebrand Creative that's going to be helping us with that.

Sue Barnes is also sitting on the working group that's working on that effort. So if any of you are interested in that, that would be a way to get involved. Just let me know. We can have up to three ESP members that contribute directly to the I think we meet every other week, so you can contribute in that way. Otherwise, you'll help us to, roll out some of those initiatives when we meet for, like, Earth Day or Science Fest or the other events that we have planned around it.

So that gets fun. And then we'll give routine updates just on we on the outcomes of those initiatives. For example, we're going to build metrics, like how many people have been reached, have we been able to change behavior in any sort of way. So those are the updates that this board will be receiving. Review updates as needed on the implementation of the fleet conversion and community wide EV charging plan or receive updates.

So one of the things that came out of you know, I'll just bring I'll keep you up to date on on the fleet conversion initiatives the county is taking and then any EV charging infrastructure that we're building. And I do that normally through my sustainability update at the end of every meeting, but if we want something more in-depth, then, you know, I could do that as well. So at council's direction, continue to evaluate single use plastic bags to include factors such as ability to recycle and other alternatives and cost to county to recycle and engagement to include local businesses and other interested parties. So the board was asked to look at this last year, and they formed a working group, presented that information to counsel, and we still felt like we needed a little bit more direction. So, we added it back to the plan.

That's why we said at counsel's discretion. Like, if you want us to keep working on this, please give us more information. So that's why we're meeting on April 7. They asked for us to return to discuss that.

So we're Can I ask you a question? Of course. Are we gonna be expected to? Like, are they gonna be asking us questions?

They might ask some questions. Yes. K. Yes. And I've been asked to, like, verify the bag information from Smith's. So I'm working on that as well. Do you

want any help with that?

I think for now, I'm okay. Okay. But it I know you mentioned you would be there, so I

think Yeah. I'll I'll be there.

Just if you can be there, that would be good.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. Any questions so far on those items? No. Okay. So other projects, that we proposed and they accepted because they accepted our plan and approved it is to provide energy audit services for up to a 100 homes.

So, like we did for the fleet conversion plan and also for to hire firebrand, If anyone's interested in helping me with that, please let me know. But I think yeah. We the hardest part with this is finding actual energy auditors, and I think I might have found a couple of potential partners this week. So more to come on that. Abby and I are working together on that.

I don't know if some of you've met her. Abby Hayward, she's our energy and water conservation coordinator with public utilities. And then and then we said we wanted to request and receive updates on other county initiatives, sustainability initiatives, like in the integrated pest management plan. That's really important near and dear to this board because this board worked really hard to stop the use of glyphosate on county property. So that's why we're like, okay.

How's that going? So that's why that has stayed on our work plan just to see how that is continuing to play out. Biosolid composting. So the county takes all of so all of our waste waste, like, number two numb number one and number two waste goes down to the wastewater treatment plant. And then what they do is they turn the solids, the biosolids into, like, a like, a sludge. Right? It's like a it's not sludge. That's don't use that term. It's but it looks like that. And then they mix that up with all of the the not all, but some of the mulch that we make here at the EcoStation, and they're able to compost to that.

So it's always been really interesting to this board. Like, how is that process working out? And then the residents are able to pick up the mulch and use it for, you know, non, like, nonfood types of fruits and or not fruits and vegetables, like flower gardens or lawns or things like that. So it's been very popular program and something the board has kept their eye on in the past. And that presentation is normally given by the manager of the wastewater treatment plant.

And then recently, we built the white it's hard to say this. Try it. White Rock Wastewater treatment Plant. So there's an additional amount of of material that's being generated from that. So it'd be good to hear an update about that.

So if you're ever going down the main hill, if you're not or coming up instead as the passenger, look to your right, and you'll see where the biosolid composting facility is. They're just really big, long, beautiful, dark rich compost piles. So it's it's really fun to see if you have a chance to go to the wastewater. I think what is Abby Abby calling them? Tour de Sewer.

She's doing tours de Sewer, and she'll visit the wastewater treatment plant, and then they stop, I think, at the compost facility. And it's it's an amazing plant, so I definitely recommend that. So we get updates on that routinely. Recycling, we just heard that presentation. We actually had free waste connections. Sorry. They used to be Friedman. Now they're waste connections. They gave us an update, so that was great to hear how we're doing and how we can improve. Yard trimming program, it's always interesting to hear how that improve that program continues to grow and be, you know, used so heavily.

Artificial turf. So recently, parks approved or they developed their artificial turf study. Right? And then we got to weigh in on that as a board.

Can I make a comment on Yes? Okay. I just read that Colorado banned all artificial turf because of PFAS Wow. Across the state. Yeah. So I saw that, like, two days ago. Wow. Sorry. Go ahead.

It's amazing. Okay. So this board had some recommendations that went into that plan, and then the plan moved on to council. So that's why things like what member Blair just mentioned is why we wanna keep our eyes on this plan and just learn and provide input when appropriate. So the open space management plan, the same we could, you know, request updates or, request presentations. The comprehensive plan so they're currently updating the county's comprehensive plan. It's everything, I think David Hampton, go ahead. Thank you.

So we had our first two public meetings last week, one in up here and one in White Rock. And they're pretty high levels. You get to do stuff like put dots where you think good places for new housing would be and things like that. But it's it's kinda interesting. There's also a survey online, like fire ban survey for their marketing plan for us. So if you have a chance, check it out.

Where's the survey where's the survey link?

No. Somewhere in on the Internet.

I I sent the survey link for the comp plan to all the board members. So look for emails from me. You'll find it buried somewhere in your email.

Thank you.

Sorry. Writing something down. So, so, yeah, the comp plan is happening, and from my understanding, it's what's in chapter 16. So attend a public meeting if you can. Take the survey.

Weigh in as you can. I don't think we're in their scope to come and do an individual update here, but we could participate in what they already have planned. So I'd recommend that from a board perspective and and bring something back or take the survey, share it with your your your your networks. Right? It's really important, and it'll impact how we grow and develop in Los Alamos for, you know, coming decades.

Staying up to date with what's happening with BCity and supporting BCity. The company became a BCID USA BCity affiliate a couple of years ago. That's why we hear updates from Kokyong and Britain, and we just wanna continue promoting bee pollinator habitats bee and other pollinator habitats. We had a bicycle working group, so we'll continue to follow that from the keyboard perspective. We can ask for updates and hear what's, you know, what's come out of those working groups.

By the way, we added Herman to the keyboard. So

it'll Wonderful. He's gonna be a great member because he loves he loves all of that. Herman Gepper well, I think a few of you know, but he used to be a member on this board. And then the water and energy conservation plan, Abby routinely gives us updates, and we're able to, you know, provide input on those as well. The m s four permit, I don't know a lot about that.

So but it's on our list of things to keep track of, and then the Green Los Alamos program. Okay. And then the another duty that we're signed up for is to attend the boards of commission luncheons, which as the chair, that's normally your one of your responsibilities. If you can't make it, they normally ask someone else to attend, but it's just a fun way to share and also learn what other boards are doing. But we also mentioned that at that luncheon that we would provide a cap presentation overview and highlight some of the actions that might be relevant to other boards. So maybe we can request to do that before you

I'm there for you.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I can help I can help build build that out. And then the last item is to review this plan quarterly. So we reviewed it now. We'll review it in three months from now. And then just interfacing with other boards and businesses. Right? So we do we support, Peak and LAPS and, you know, the LANL and DPU and Tboard. We do our best to to support and assist when possible.

Let's see What we're planning where we're planning what events we're planning to participate in is cleanup LA day. We have it used to be in April, and then we'd get the worst weather, like snow or then it would be prom and then Easter. So it's, like, never a good time in April. So they have moved it to be I think it's in September now, and they align it with the great American cleanup day. So it's like other like, millions of other Americans cleaning up their neighborhoods and things like that.

So, we normally participate in that. We normally participate in Earth Day for Peaks Earth Day Festival, which is April 18, so mark your calendars. And then also the county holds its own little Earth Day celebration for employee employees, and that's on act the actual Earth Day, which is April 22. We support the Peak and DPU Water Festival, so we'll do one of our initiatives. Like, you know, we haven't decided what to do yet, but we try to make it fun and engaging.

So if any of you have kids and do games with them that work, please let us know. Last year, we did would you rather like, would you rather be in a solar powered roller coaster or, like, you know, just ask silly questions like that, and they really they had to run across the room depending on their answer and just kinda got them thinking of, like, why would you want that? You know what I mean? Like, got them thinking and moving. So I think the teachers and the kids appreciated that.

So then we also have Science Fest. That's one of our, what do they call it, our premier, community events. So we get thousands of people at Science Fest, and it's a great way for us to share what we're working on with the community. We have participated in summer concerts in the past. It's an avenue for sure. It's definitely pretty loud, and people are going to have fun. So if we wanna do something there, it needs to be, you know, a targeted approach. Of course, farmer's market are a great way, casual, kinda relaxing way to interface with the community. People have lots of time to chat. They wanna share what they're doing.

Bear festival. Yep. So, yeah, that's that's pretty much it. Was there I'm not it. That's a lot of work that we're signed up to do this year.

So it's it's a good plan to refer to, like, where are we, what do we need to focus on next. And and just for the boards, there are new members. What we typically do is start working on this work plan at the end of the year, like, November time frame, and we start building out what we wanna do the next year. So and since our scope is so large and it's really targeted on climate action, like energy efficiency, zero waste, DB adoption, things like that. It won't change, but maybe a goal we might goal we have might be more targeted or we wanna try something new.

So that that would be the place to add it. Yeah. So any other questions?

Thank you.

Did you have a question? So

if we have an area of interest in one of these projects that you brought up, do we just email you about it? Oh, okay. Just let know. Just to let tell you what we're interested in, and then you'll help us, like

Figure

out how do you

how you can push it.

Yes. Okay.

I can do that.

Okay. Thanks. And I'd great I'd welcome your help. So back to you.

Alright. Cheers report. And the only thing I wanna add is that the Robert Rules comment. So on all business votes, we have to take a vote. But for minutes and agenda approval, if there's no changes, we can just approve them by acclamation. So we can blow it through. Alright. BPU, any updates there?

I did attend last night's meeting and presented, ESB liaison report to them. A lot of the time in the, meeting was the presentation of the DPU's budget for FY 2027. And the one that stuck the item that stuck out is that they're looking to, have an ordinance to increase gas rates to cover the debt service that they have, and to so they discussed how how to how to raise the rates, and there'll be an ordinance at the next meeting, for them to vote on, and then council also asked to approve that. They've, BPU approved a a request to extend the electric coordination agreement with WANL. So this is the agreement that, we we're in a power pool together with the lab because we're not a small enough power consumer to do this on our own, but they are.

So together, we purchased power, and we need a coordination agreement with them to do that, and it has to go through DOE and so forth. And so, they asked for another hundred and twenty day extension on that, and, that now has to go to counsel for approval also. They did approve funding for a mobile emergency generator. This would be a diesel powered generator that could be moved around to do whatever, but mostly they talked about using it to help keep water pumping from, various wells and also to help run one of the wastewater treatment plants in the event of a large outage, a disaster related outage like wildfire or something like that that would shut down power for a long period of time. We now have FEMA funding for about 75% of the purchase of that generator, and so the the the board had to approve funding for the rest of it.

The chair's report just notes that one of the BPU members, Eric Stromberg, is running for county council, so you can look for his campaign this year. Things from the utility manager's report, Philo Shelton, Elk Ridge. They've got about a 100 homes hooked up to the new natural gas system, and they're getting close to finishing that project. Longtime member of DPU, Kathy Deanna, has given retirement notice along with some other staff. The Jemez Mountain Fire Project, so this is the waterline running up from, the base of Parrido Mountain up to the ski hill, which will serve both snowmaking and, provide, water for firefighting, if we have another fire fire that comes through the area.

They actually made really good progress on that this year because of the warm weather all winter, and so they, they made quite a bit of progress there. And finally, now, thanks to, the dismissal of secretary Noem at the federal level grants from FEMA to work on this project have started coming through, and they now have $2,800,000 in federal funds for the project. On the chromium fluid side, the county met with NMED about restarting coming up with a restart on a way to treat the chromium plume that threatens the water system. We on the PFAS, speaking of contaminants, on the PFAS front, we qualify for a class action lawsuit so that we can get a payout from Dow Chemical on PFAS contamination. And the new power line coming into the county, the EPCU, is on track and in in permitting going forward.

The other thing that I noticed is on the tickler file for the April 1 meeting, the presentation on balcony solar, which is a a pretty cool I don't know if everyone's heard about it yet or not, but it's a a system where, basically, you would be able to go to IKEA or Lowe's or something and buy solar panels and a battery and hook it up yourself basically to your home, providing 1,500 watts of of solar power without having to go through all the permitting process and so forth. And so they have a presentation on that April. Before I leave this discussion, since Shannon and Carly are both present, at the last meeting, Carly, you mentioned to me that you might be interested in in in taking over some of these liaison duties to BPU. Is that still the case?

Yeah. I'd be interested in that. I will just warn you. I'm gonna be out of the country from April 13 through May 14. Okay. But before and after, I can help.

So

Okay. Shannon, I was wondering if you've since you've you've gotten very busy with school and so forth, would you like a a decrease in your BPU requirements? Would you like Carly to help out?

Yeah. Maybe we could revise the schedule so it's three. And then I I have the April dates anyways. So I've got April 1 and then the fifteenth. So maybe yeah. So maybe we should look at the schedule and see if we could split it up into three or something.

Okay. If you wanna continue to to serve, is you still have time to do this?

Can I decide that after council tells us what they want us to do with the plastic bag?

Yes. That's a very good a very good thing. Okay. So we'll all just stay in touch on that. Yeah. Assuming that there's no problem with us conferring about that with cor quorum rules, can we can we coordinate this amongst three of us?

Yes. I think that's okay. Yeah. Up to three. So

Okay. Alrighty. So, okay. Stay stay in touch when you when you figure out if you want help. And, even if you don't, Carly can help out anyway. It is an interesting gig, but it is very time consuming. So

thank you. So I do have a question. So April 1, I think, is the, like, working meeting for APU. Are those recorded too? Yes. Okay.

And and we do not participate in those. There's you do not have to give a liaison report to the working, group. So I typically actually just watch the recordings

Okay.

And and make notes from those.

So

Cool. Thank you. Mhmm.

Alright, Keyboard. We had a public meeting hearing for Denver Steel's phase three. So it's nice to see that moving along. And then this is more closely related to what we're doing. They're getting ready to start the weekend service program again because the pilot program last year was really good. And that's microtransit, so it's it's pretty exciting. Chris and Rick?

I was not able to make the meeting this week or the previous meeting to report out on it.

Alright. I already gave planning and zoning. That's just the comprehensive plan. Councilor Hand is not here, so we won't be receiving a council liaison report. And we got an excellent report from Ms. Gourlay on the passage of those two that we're concerned about. Miss Dunharrel's not here, so no Bee City update. And that that goes back to member Barnes for sustainability alliance.

Would that be?

Yeah. We haven't met either, I believe. Or if we did, I missed it.

No. We didn't meet this

past week. I didn't think we did. I will I will say on the Bee City front that actually Bee City is starting back up again. They kind of took the winter off because the bees did. But they're they've already had a wildflower seed sowing workshop, and they're looking for people to help out with the bees with the pollinator demo garden. So you can volunteer on Volunteer Los Alamos website to help out with the watering and keeping the beautiful plants alive.

Thank you. Staff report? I think you did most of it in the

I did a lot of it. Work on

review of it.

Did a lot of it. So, let's see. Still working on Mesa Public Library charging infrastructure. We're building two, DC fast chargers there, and things are starting to line up with, the construction piece of it. So we should be going to council in a few either the thirty first or the seventh for that construction task order.

Let's see what else. Education and outreach. So like I mentioned, creative firebrand, we have launched a climate action marketing survey asking the community to help us brand the initiative. So there's a few there's three names, and there's also three styles, that we're asking for your input on. So please check your email. It takes two minutes, and share it with your colleagues and your friends and your kids and your everybody. Share with everyone. We really want to get a wide range of opinions and feedback. So and that closes April 1. So but it doesn't take long at all.

And then let's see. So I mentioned Earth Day. We are seeking volunteers for those two events. So if you're interested, let me know. And then, again, just kudos to this board for, you know, supporting and endorsing the fleet conversion plan and community wide EV charging plan. And a really big thank you to Sue Barnes for your help with that, so I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you so much. And then just a little snapshot of what we did last month on residential level. So this is everything you put in your roll carts, everything you put out on the curbside in February. So, February, we weren't picking up yard trimmings.

That's why that's at zero. But we did trash increased significant well, not significantly, but by 5%, and then recycle was slightly down. So I don't know. Maybe people put their recycle in the trash. That's kinda what it looked like.

Hopefully not. But, it also shows how we've performed year over year. So that's always kind of interesting. And then just our trend over time, you can see the yellow spark spikes is when we started doing yard trimming collection curbside. And then we through our waste diversion programs, we were able to divert seven trucks of recycle from the landfill, and 16 trucks of trash were transported to the Valencia Landfill that so that's an hour and 20 miles one way.

So really expensive to manage our waste here in Los Alamos. Our transportation fees typically increase annually and so do our tipping fees. So it's really expensive to manage waste here in Los Alamos. Okay. That's my update, Cher. I have a question.

Yes. So I'm wondering if there's been discussion or if it's worth having discussion of restarting the yard trimming waste collection earlier in the year. And I asked this because I know there's been a lot of promotional, like I don't know if that's the right word, but the county's been pushing, like, wildfire preparedness. Right? And they've been, like, starting to communicate that.

And, like, part of that is cleaning up your your lawn. So I wonder if it makes sense to coincide that more. Like, that's what I did this weekend, and I my bin got full very quickly. And now I don't know when. Is it April when it starts up again?

It should have started.

Monday. So next week. Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think the next one's next week. I I agree totally. It's like, I actually have a surplus of yard trimmings I'm waiting to put in the the bin just from needle cast blowing around all over.

So I think they did do a special collection that I seen for yard trimmings.

Okay. I might have just missed it. Yeah. And we were gone for a couple weeks anyways, but

You know?

I don't know.

It's scheduled for it's scheduled to start next week.

Mhmm. Okay. So it's just like there's maybe a little bit of a lag between February and March. I don't know. It was just something I was thinking about.

Mhmm.

Yeah. And I I don't wanna, like, throw it away because it you know, it'll be put to good use rather than taking it to the eco station or whatever, which I know there is also a bin there, but it's I don't have a truck, so I can't just, like, throw it in a truck. I have to put it into those, like, cardboard box bag things from Metzger's.

So Yeah.

They did do special pickups. I'm pretty sure I've seen that because of that very reason, like, the wildfire preparedness. So do

you how does that work? Do you have to schedule it? I'd have to look. Okay. Maybe that's something we can help with, like, communicating that. Mhmm. Because not that I'm always paying attention, but I try to. Alright. Yeah.

I'll look at it, and I'll I'll see if I can find the press release and forward it to you.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

Was there another question?

Yeah. You can always tell when I have a question.

Your eyes. So

for that company that presented for us today, is there something that we need to do? Or

So they presented to council, and now they presented to us. So there's nothing yet. Like, they haven't asked the county. I think they had initially asked for a letter of commitment for, like, our waste, but we can't really do that as a county. We have to give we have to go through an RFP process, like, a competitively bid process to manage our waste. So at this point, it's just kind of watching and and, you know, not I mean, like he said, it's, like, twenty four months to thirty six months of, like, out time right before they are up and running. So Yeah.

Okay. That's all I was wondering.

So nothing yet. But if it goes to council, I mean, that would be a chance for the board to weigh in.

Alright. Next month, anything on the agenda?

What would the board I mean, what would the board like to see? We did hear back from the state about the climate action plan, but they they're able to present in April. But Carly won't be here in April, so I don't know if we wanted to do that then, and then we need to do our open meetings act training. But I didn't wanted to do a month when Carly's not here. So that one is booked out till July, I think, June or July when attorneys are available. Is there anything else you'd like to see? Eric has a question. Soon? Yeah.

Go ahead, Eric.

Hey. Is there any chance just at some point we can hear about the county's MS four plans since that that EPA permit came out. Now they and they'll have to they'll have to meet those requirements. So I would be really interested to hear what what the county's gonna do. And does that be next one just at some point in the future?

Yeah. I haven't heard much about it, so I'm not sure what I can see if there's any material or anything available to share yet.

Okay.

We also haven't we haven't had an update from the pesticide management plan in a while. I don't think we had one at all last year. Okay. So maybe that might be good. Sure.

Yeah. Things have changed, so that'd be it'd be good.

Yeah. I don't I don't think we had anything.

And we had an executive order on glyphosate.

We did, and then it got or is there a new one? I don't

No. It's still in place.

Oh, okay. On the federal executive order? I mean, I think I think we're still not using it in the county. But

Yeah. We're not using it in the county.

But I remember last time, director Cyren was talking about some of the challenges that they were having. Oh, I don't know. Maybe good to hear if they've resolved some of those. Sure.

Yep. There's if you think of any other things, it doesn't need to be exactly next month, but, you know, we can start building up what we're our upcoming agenda items.

And since we're referring a lot of things, if we don't have anything, we would just cancel. Right?

Yeah. That's never been the case. Scope is so big. There's always information to share.

Alright. And with that, we're adjourned.