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Micronair was a costly lesson for the city of Albany

• A city money-saving plan using new technology backfired with the technology failed.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — The word is magic to the men and women who have been a part of the city of Albany’s Public Works department for more than a decade; it’s a word that, when spoken aloud, invariable illicits a reaction of disgust.

Micronair.

“That was a flawed process from the start,” Michael Capps, supervisor at the city’s Joshua Street waste water treatment plant and a 35-year employee, said of Micronair. “They claimed they were going to achieve 100 percent destruction of organic matter in the city’s solid waste. Nothing gets 100 percent.”

Micronair was a new technology when the Albany City Commission agreed in 1997 to spend $3.1 million in tax money to utilize the system in its waste water treatment. Utilizing microscopic organisms to dispose of biosolid waste, the system was supposed to save the city money.

“Before the city signed the contract with Micronair, the sludge at the plant was dried in a centrifuge and then shipped to a landfill,” Capps said. “In the ’80s the sludge was used as fertilizer, but there became concerns about nitrates in the drinking water in areas where it was used.

“Micronair was supposed to save the city the cost of disposing of the sludge. But the system failed.”

Delays in installing the Micronair system led to a buildup of waste solids, which eventually resulted in at least 12 wastewater spills and $141,000 in fines levied by the state’s Environmental Protection division.

In little more than a year, the system had failed, and the city of Albany had filed suit against Micronair.

“Over the course of the next two years, it became apparent that this system was not working,” Capps said. “We had to rent a belt press system to separate the solids for a while before we finally bought our own press.

“It was just one of those ugly situations that could have been avoided. The folks here at the treatment plant were never sold on the process, but the sales people convinced city leaders. They talked with us about it, and we told them there were issues we had with the program. They didn’t listen.”

Ann Zimmer-Shepherd, the city’s current sewer systems superintendent, said she couldn’t believe experts weren’t consulted during the Micronair discussions.

“Anybody with a background in this field could look at that system and see that it wasn’t going to work,” she said. “But the engineer who was with the city at the time (Bruce Maples) was never asked about it. That’s still amazing to me.”

Amazing and, if nothing else, an expensive lesson learned.

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