JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The city of Jamestown will be deciding whether or not to participate in a feasibility study to see if it’s worth recovering methane gas from wastewater treatment plants as an energy revenue source.

Joe Regnery with New Phase Energy came before the Jamestown Public Works Committee with the request to conduct a feasibility study and see if a project to capture methane gas from wastewater treatment would be economical. Regnery says he met with City Administrator Sarah Hellekson and wastewater treatment plant workers with the proposal.

Regnery says at this time, the city is flaring off the natural gas which he says could be used to earn the community money and environmental value. He says Jamestown piqued their interest due to the tremendous amounts of total suspended solids coming through the plants from the industrial park.

Regnery says they’ve analyzed the numbers and found that the city is missing out on a potential $4,750 per day for the gas converted into natural gas. He estimates the cost to create a system to convert the captured gas into reusable energy would be around $5 million. He says Jamestown sticks out to them for the sheer volume of bio gas that is produced from the area.

Regnery says because of the supplemental sewage processing through the sewer system from the industrial park, Jamestown sits at the production of a community with a population of 150,000.

He says Jamestown would be the only community in North Dakota to be converting the gas and turning it into a revenue source.

The cost of the study would be around $65,000 and would include the means of engineering and creating a facility to convert the methane into a renewable resource. The committee will discuss the study at their December meeting.