Work on the $50 million methane to natural gas plant at Watford’s Twin Creeks Landfill has started – eight smonths later than was originally hoped.

WM Canada (Waste Management) began construction in February.

The methane produced at Twin Creeks – one of the largest in Ontario – already powers a nearby greenhouse complex. But only 40 per cent of what is produced by the 1.4 million tonnes of waste hauled to the site yearly is used at the greenhouse.

In March 2023, the company announced it was planning to convert the methane gas created in the landfill to natural gas. The company is building a 300 by 400 foot Renewable Natural Gas facility on site to power its own municipal collection trucks and to feed into a new Enbridge pipeline which is in the works.

When WM explained the project to Warwick Council a year ago, Larry Feduc of Waste Management said the building will house all of the equipment needed to “take the landfill gas and remove a number of compounds… like oxygen, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, various other compounds, basically to clean it up, and almost purify it to almost pure methane if you will to make it natural gas pipeline quality.”

Officials say the plant will produce enough natural gas to power 35,000 homes a year.

Originally, WM hoped to begin construction last summer. Company officials were not immediately available to explain how long the construction would take.