City councillors want to move quickly to decide whether to pay Liberty Energy to burn sewage sludge at a proposed power plant on Strathearne Avenue, or spend $65 million to build an incinerator at the Woodward Avenue sewage treatment plant, an idea opposed by area residents.

Downtown Councillor Bob Bratina says Liberty would pay $9 million a year in property tax on its $170-million plant, which has planning and environmental approval.

“Every year Liberty doesn’t operate, we lose $9 million. Is there any way we can resolve this in a timely manner?” he asked public works staff this week.

Jim Harnum, senior director of environment and sustainable infrastructure, said council wanted an independent party to compare Liberty’s proposal to the city’s biosolids master plan to determine the better deal for taxpayers.

A consultant chosen for the job estimated it would take three months and cost $200,000 — too long and too much, according to Harnum, who said Liberty agreed to do the work by the end of next month for $40,000 to $50,000.

“If the Liberty proposal seems like a good deal, we would spend some money doing due diligence or immediately bring the biosolids environmental study report to (the public works) committee.”

Liberty CEO Wilson Nolan commended staff for it “professional, fair and balanced” comparison approach, but said: “We’re concerned about the lack of urgency for cost-saving (by the city).”

Nolan said his power plant near Burlington Street East, fuelled by sludge and wood waste, would be farther from homes than the city incinerator and would have two units, eliminating the need to spread sludge on farms during maintenance shutdowns.

He noted Liberty’s Hamilton plan has inspired San Francisco and 15 surrounding municipalities to form a collaborative to build a similar sludge-to-energy plant now in a tender-call process, although no site has been chosen.