Trash Burning Power Plant

General Information

The OES visited the Trash Burning Power Plant on February 15, 2005. Located on the south side of Columbus, the stacks of the power plant had been a significant part of the south Columbus skyline for more than two decades. Ground was broken to build the Columbus Refuse and Coal Fired Municipal Electric Plant in November 1979. On June 16, 1981, during the construction of the power plant, a 50-year-old man by the name of Don Hopkins was crushed to death when a two-ton section of duct work fell on him. Robie Wood, a second worker under the duct work, was injured, along with Richard Walraven and Norbert Saur who were working atop the duct and fell with it. The investigation revealed that a section of heavy cable broke, causing the duct work to fall 20-25 feet to the ground. The plant began operation in August 1983, eventually burning 3000 tons of trash and coal to produce 90-megawatts of electricity for the Columbus power grid. During the plant's operation, it was plagued with problems and was often referred to as the "cash-burning power plant". Pantyhose would become entangled in machinery and bowling balls would break machines, not to mention the toxic fumes being emitted from the three 270 foot tall stacks. Dioxin levels rose for miles around the plant, a yellow cloud was even seen once hovering above nearby Grove City that was traced back to the plant. In 1993, the newly created Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio acquired the plant from the City of Columbus. The plant was shut down in November of 1994 due to the financial and environmental strains it caused. The former trash burning power plant sat vacant for the next decade, being used only as storage for SWACO. Potential buyers of the plant came and went several times and a decision to destroy the plant was reached in late 2004. A contractor bid to actually pay $377,000 to bring the building down and to recycle the plant's steel. The first step of the building's destruction was to implode the three stacks that loomed over the south side for so many years. The stacks had been cleaned, scrubbed, and vacuumed and approximately 75 pounds of dynamite was set in place to bring the reinforced concrete and brick stacks down. On the date of our visit, the stacks came down in less than thirty seconds. SWACO has developed the former site into a green-style industrial business.

Location Information: Demolished

The power plant was located near the intersection of State Route 104 & Dyer Road in Columbus, Franklin County.

Photographs

Video

	Implosion From South: The stacks of the trash burning power plant coming down from the OES' point of view.
	Implosion From North: This video was submitted to the OES from a site visitor and shows the northern view.

NOTE: A small browser plug-in called Microsoft Silverlight is required to play all videos on the OES site. The plug-in works with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari and is compatible with PC and Mac. Click Here to download the latest version.