Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Facility Enclosed Flare Station Installation Project

The City of Santa Cruz is undertaking the installation of a permanent enclosed low-nitrogen oxide (NOx) flare station as a backup system for landfill gas collection and destruction at the Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Facility, located at 605 Dimeo Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. This project replaces a temporary flare with a fixed facility designed to activate automatically when the existing Landfill Gas to Energy (LFGTE) Plant is offline, ensuring continuous compliance with Monterey Bay Air Resources District (MBARD) regulations for methane destruction and emissions control. The flare station will occupy approximately 3,600 square feet on a concrete pad immediately west of the LFGTE Plant and will house critical infrastructure including an enclosed flare stack, an air compressor, three blowers, a condensate management system, and a centralized equipment control panel. Access to the site will be via an existing landfill road, and a three-foot-tall concrete retaining wall will be constructed along its northern boundary to provide structural and environmental stabilization. All construction activities will adhere to the City’s approved Operations and Maintenance Habitat Conservation Plan and are exempt under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Section 15301 as a Class 1 categorical exemption due to minor alterations to an existing facility. The facility will be connected to the existing landfill gas collection network via 200 linear feet of header piping and require new trenching for electrical feeds, conduits, and wiring. A six-foot chain-link fence with access gates will surround the station, and all systems must meet MBARD’s performance standards for low-NOx combustion and fugitive emission control. The City of Santa Cruz Public Works Department acts as both the procuring and implementing agency, with no indication of competitive bidding, formal contract type, pricing, or standard federal acquisition clauses. Payment and invoicing procedures are not detailed, and no contracting officer representative or evaluation factors have been formally designated. The project is part of a broader environmental strategy to ensure uninterrupted compliance with air quality mandates, with the temporary flare scheduled for removal by July 2026 upon completion of the new system.