Commission OKs compost facility near SLO airport

A conditional use permit for the construction and operation of a compost facility in San Luis Obispo to process green waste and food scraps was approved by the county Planning Commission last week.

The project applicant, Hitachi Zosen Inova, will remodel a 13,128-square-foot warehouse and build a 36,000-square-foot addition at 4388 Old Santa Fe Road near the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport.

The plant will process food and green waste and then use the methane emitted from the compost to produce energy. About 20 percent of that energy will be used to operate the facility and the other 80 percent will be sold to PG&E to power about 600 to 650 homes per year.

“The process uses very little water because the water necessary to the anaerobic digestion process is recycled from the green waste fed into the process,” said Tim Ronda, the project architect with Studio Design Group.

The next steps are to obtain a county building permit, a permit from Cal Recycle to operate the plant and the authority to construct from the County Air Pollution Control District. The goal is to start building by the end of the year.

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 12:51 PM with the headline "Commission OKs compost facility near SLO airport."