Local Project Meant to Convert Organic Waste into Natural Gas Goes “Offline”

A long-awaited project intended to mitigate the effects of climate change is now offline, despite only starting up in June.

The project, a joint effort from National Grid and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Sanitation, uses the methane from organic waste processed at Greenpoint’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant into natural gas used for heating.

However, Gothamist now reports that the project is not working as intended. Instead, the gas is being flared off or burned off as carbon dioxide (a major contributor to climate change).

According to the outlet, National Grid bears the responsibility of fixing the issue. However, the energy conglomerate faces skepticism from critics who say they dragged their feet on implementing the project in the first place (though supply-chain issues caused by the pandemic certainly didn’t help things). The plan was initially projected to be completed by 2015, though it didn’t get up and running until earlier this year.

National Grid did not provide an anticipated timeline to Gothamist about when the project would go live again but said they were doing “maintenance work to ensure continued operation of the facility to deliver clean energy for the local community.”