COLLEGE MEDIA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014 · VOL 46, ISSUE 7 · BADGERHERALD.COM
Smoked Out. Despite Madison Police Chief’s endorsement for marijuana legalization, UWPD, MPD continue to work on drug busts by Alex Arriaga
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CAPITAL BUDGET
Budget for clean energy facility sees 2-year deferral Thirty-year-old concept, biodigester project estimated to cost approximately $17 million, faces another road block with 2015 capital budget by Daniel McKay City Editor
Strategic Initiative Coordinator for Madison’s Streets Division, George Dreckmann has been trying to figure out a way to turn the city’s waste into energy for the past 30 years. However, as Mayor Paul Soglin’s 2015 capital budget nears its final stages, Madison’s biodigester project, may face another setback. “I’ve been looking and trying to figure out something to do with food waste since I came on board back in 1989,” Dreckmann said. “About six years ago it came to our attention that this anaerobic digestion process had a great deal of promise.”
The biodigester works by breaking down organic material, usually food waste and compost, by sealing it a chamber and allowing bacteria to consume the waste over the course of four weeks. The breakdown of the waste produces methane gas, or biogas, as a byproduct, which is captured into a storage bag and can be used to power a generator, compressed into an alternative to diesel fuel or put into the natural gas pipeline. A pilot program to test the process began in 2011, comprising of 500 households and six businesses who have been separating their waste and sending it to a compost waste facility in Columbia county.
After that facility closed, the waste was taken to a biodigester at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the pilot program
Bigger public works “just aren’t that sexy. It’s not as much fun as cutting a ribbon for a police station or a neighborhood center.
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George Dreckmann City of Madison was considered a success by the participants, who came to voice their discontent at a City Council meeting Tuesday, after the program
was recently discontinued. Verveer said the pilot was halted because Madison’s own biodigester will not be a feasible purchase for a few years now. However, he said the “distraught” participants will soon get to see the program revived after the council voted to purchase a plastic filter to improve separation of plastics before being transported to UWOshkosh. “I would say that, by virtue of the vote at the last council meeting to purchase the filter for the materials for our current program,” Verveer said. “I would say it shows there is a tremendous amount of support in the city council for the organics collection program.”
As for Madison’s biodigester, Dreckmann said cost still is the prohibiting factor. The facility itself is estimated to cost roughly $17 million, Dreckmann said, but variable costs for things, such as transportation and collection vehicles, are harder to calculate. In addition, the biodigester demands special storage tanks for the natural gas it produces, making the cost prediction harder than if it were just an ordinary building estimated on a cost per square foot basis. “This isn’t a building,” Dreckmann said. This is a system.”
Rather than a 2015 start date, Soglin’s budget has pushed back the construction date to 2017. Dreckmann said he hopes this date will stick, assuming the city remains convinced that funds will still be available. While he is disappointed with another delay for the biodigester, Dreckmann said he understands the realities of such a large public project. “Bigger public works just aren’t that sexy,” Dreckmann said. “It’s not as much fun as cutting a ribbon for a police station or a neighborhood center. That’s just the way it is.”
‘Forbidden Art’ Memorial Union exhibit highlights the secret works of concentration camp prisoners during WWII.
Students plan ‘green’ projects In an effort to make UW-Madison more sustainable, committee works on ‘Edible Landscapes’ by Lisa Milter Position
University of Wisconsin’s Sustainability Committee met Wednesday to plan new and innovative ways to implement environmentallyfriendly projects on campus this year. This is the studentrun organization’s third year working to promote environmental awareness, by being involved with projects and volunteer opportunities on campus. One of the committee’s successful projects has been Edible Landscapes, which now has six raised beds containing small areas of
vegetation that can be seen in various places around campus. Edible Landscapes is a volunteer-based project that, with sponsorship from the Associated Students of Madison Green Fund, turns “ordinary campus landscapes into beautiful edible landscapes,” according to its Facebook page. Sophomore Kyla Kaplan is the Sustainability Committee chair. Kaplan said that her hope for this year is to continue with successful projects like the Edible Landscapes. Kaplan was an intern for the committee last year and started an initiative called Receipt Reduction,
which aims to eliminate the permanent printing of receipts and offer optional receipts to customers. During the second semester last year, the committee began working with University Housing, the student unions, campus transportation, Babcock Dairy and the DoIT Tech Store to try to find a way to make Receipt Reduction work. As of now, both Newell’s Deli and Smith Hall have optional receipts. Kaplan said that if Receipt Reduction continues to be successful, it will move next to the Gordon Dining and Event Center, and then spread farther to all of the dining halls. The committee was also successful in educating the
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community and promoting composting around campus, as there are now compost bins on every floor of the dorms. The committee is also in the process of launching a pilot program for curbside composting for non-dorm residents. Though Madison has only done this with a couple of parts of the city, it is hoping to do the same for the student neighborhoods. Matt Kozlowski, treasurer for Progressive Dane, said curb-side composting is not anywhere on campus right now, but the city is looking to expand it to the Regent
ARTSETC., PAGE 7
A hit and a miss
Wisconsin volleyball loses once again to top-five team Penn State in front of a sell-out Badger crowd. SPORTS, PAGE 14
SUSTAINABLITY, page 5
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