ll municipal landfills emit landfill gas (LFG), which is roughly 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide and other trace gases. Methane gas is created naturally when organic materials (such as food scraps, yard clippings, or animal waste) decompose in the absence of oxygen. This flammable gas can be burned as a fuel in furnaces, kilns, engines, or boilers. If left uncollected, methane gas can be very damaging to the environment, adding to local problems with poor air quality and haze. As a greenhouse gas, methane has roughly 27 times the negative environmental impact of carbon dioxide. Uncollected LFG is also the main source of odors associated with landfills.

Testing and operations have revealed a rich methane resource at the site, particularly given the relatively small size of the Dillsboro landfill. The system is capable of providing 40 cubic feet per minute of LFG, with a methane content of 58%, yielding roughly 1.2 million Btu of heat per hour. This is roughly equal to the amount of heat generated by 20 residential gas furnaces burning simultaneously. The limited LFG resource requires JCGEP to use cooperative scheduling for all users, which encourages energy conservation and creation of other alternate energy sources.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) in 1994 to significantly reduce methane emissions from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills by encouraging the use of landfill gas for energy. Since the program's inception, LMOP’s efforts have reduced landfill methane emissions by over 24 million metric tons of carbon equivalent. The greenhouse gas reduction benefits are equivalent to having planted 24 million acres of forest or removed the annual emissions from 17 million vehicles. LMOP has provided technical assistance, marketing materials, and a tremendous amount of support to the Green Energy Park. JCGEP was the proud recipient of the EPA LMOP Project of the Year Award in 2006.
 
For more information about the Landfill Methane Outreach Program, visit the LMOP website at http://www.epa.gov/lmop/.