Greenhouse Gas Inventory Quantifies Emissions at Pennsylvania Wastewater Treatment Plant

Delaware County Regional Water Control Authority (DELCORA) collects and treats wastewater in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. WESTON prepared a GHG emissions inventory for Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol of the World Resource Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Eye on Integration

• WESTON conducted a preliminary review of organizational and facility information and assisted the client in determining organizational boundaries and the preferred base year for the inventory.
• DELCORA treats a significant quantity of refinery influent, whose emissions needed to be handled distinct from the predominant CO2 emissions of biological origin. WESTON devised methods to estimate the emissions of fossil origin from the refinery waste stream.

Features

• WESTON produced two documents: an Inventory Management Plan (IMP) and an inventory with associated calculation sheets following the WRI and the WBCSD accounting principles of relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, and accuracy.

Performance Milestones

• Working with WESTON on the baseline inventory has sparked interest in energy efficiency and renewable generation at the DELCORA plant, including potential evaluation of low-head turbines to generate power for the facility.
• DELCORA gained an understanding of their emissions profile in advance of state and federal government regulatory action. Results are being certified by a California Climate Action Registry (CCAR)-approved verifier.