MCWRA Supports Delta BIOFUEL Demonstration Project Grant Application
January 30, 2016
At its January 22, 2016 meeting, the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association (MCWRA) Board of Directors authorized staff sending a “Letter of Support” to the Delta Conservancy for the Port of Stockton/Ad-Hoc Water Hyacinth Committee’s BIOFUEL Demonstration Project Grant Application. The project would remove invasive aquatic weeds from the Delta by demonstrating that plant biomass can be harvested and used to generate methane gas at the commercial scale. The project is anticipated to have multiple environmental and stakeholder benefits including:
- Substantial reduction in aquatic herbicide applications and associated Delta foodweb impacts,
- Reduce impacts to upstream water supplies from water consumption from the very large mass of water hyacinth in the Delta (estimated at 11,000 acres in 2015),
- Improve Delta water quality conditions by reducing the decaying biomass load that depletes dissolved oxygen in Delta waters from decaying water hyacinth,
- Reduce methane emissions to the atmosphere from current WH waste management practices,
- Provide a reliable supply of natural gas to generate power,
- Remove floating plant biomass that has caused serious operational challenges for municipal and industrial water providers in the Delta and navigation problems for the Port of Stockton.
Click below for Letter of Support – Biofuel Concept Proposal
