26 March, 2007
I’ve lived in Arlington for a very long time; 27 (or so) years. I’ll admit to having never noticed these two stacks before. I like to think that it’s simply because I’ve never been driving by the Village Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in North Arlington while they were burning off, rather than that I’m inattentive. I certainly have looked for this every day since to no avail.
I’m not overly happy with the photos; next time I’ll get out of the car and get a closer look at things, but the fence and the guard scared me off.
Cheers.
~KR (26 March, 2007)
Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 58 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
The Village Creek wastewater treatment plant produces “biogas” (mostly methane) from its treatment process and uses most of it to generate electricity with two gas turbine engines — that saves taxpayers money that on their water bills. When the turbines are taken off-line for maintenance the biogas is still being produced, so they burn it in these “flares”. You were lucky to notice when they were flaring – it’s not a frequent event.