A project manager for Jackson County’s landfill gas recovery project — which would use methane generated by decomposing trash in the county’s closed landfill on the outskirts of Dillsboro to fuel a green power co-op — should be hired by Sept. 19.

County Manager Ken Westmoreland recommended renewable energy sources consultant and Dillsboro businessman Timm Muth to fill the project manager position. Westmoreland and Muth worked closely during the project’s grant application process. County commissioners are expected to approve the recommendation.

As project manager, Muth would take the lead in coordinating advisory committees to provide input for types of uses the landfill site should include. Tentative plans feature greenhouses for growing native plants, artists’ studios, a retail gallery, an open-air café and community gathering spaces such as meeting rooms and an amphitheater.

“We’re at the point now where we really need someone to just oversee all of the things that are taking place,” Westmoreland said. “I’ve been kind of muddling through for the last six months. It’s time now to go ahead and look at the placement of the greenhouses, construction of the pottery kilns, renovation of the building, all the things that put together the programs in general.”

The gas recovery project is modeled after the EnergyXchange Renewable Energy Center at the Mitchell-Yancey landfill, the first glass blowing and pottery-making operation in the world fueled by landfill gas. The concept for the center was conceived by the community as a way to use the methane generated by the 300,000 tons of trash decomposing in its old landfill.

Jackson County’s landfill holds nearly 420,000 tons of trash. It is estimated that the methane will produce a gas flow rate of 126 cubic feet per minute, or 2.9 million kilowatt hours of energy per year until 2028. Currently the methane generated by the landfill is vented off, which contributes to global warming.

“So far all of the collection wells are in place and that’s as far as they’ve gotten in terms of what’s on the ground,” Muth said, referring to the units that will capture the landfill’s methane so that it may be processed for use.

“Our goal would be to see at least the greenhouses up and operating by summer of 2006,” Muth said.

Muth, who received his electrical engineering degree from Virginia Tech, began his energy-based career working with nuclear power fuel systems. He said the experience taught him about the financial, environmental and social costs of traditional energy sources versus those of less invasive green power systems.

“For me it was as much a moral journey as anything else,” Muth said of his career’s transition to a renewable energy researcher and consultant.

Prior to moving to Western North Carolina, Muth worked as the N.C. State Energy Office’s Renewable Energy Program manager. His duties included oversite of landfill gas recovery projects, incorporation of wind and solar thermal systems, and industrial efficiency projects.

Now, Muth owns and operates Dirt Addictions, a mountain biking tour company in Dillsboro and is working in conjunction with the N.C. State University’s Solar Center.