While Greenfield and Russell debate the pros and cons of biomass facilities, one plant has been quietly operating for years, literally in the shadow of Springfield.

The Covanta Energy plant sits right off Route 5 on Bondi's Island in Agawam. Every day for the past 20 years, a steady stream of garbage trucks have unloaded their trash, then headed back to get more.

Former Agawam Mayor Christopher Johnson says, "Most people drive by on route 5 and don't even realize what goes on here but better than 15 communities trash comes here and gets burned and turned into energy."

Johnson was the Agawam Mayor when the incinerator was built in 1988. He remembers the hours he spent at public meetings where people opposed the plant.

They lost that fight. But Johnson says once the facility was up and running, people seemed to forget it was there despite it's location, right across the river from Springfield.

Johnson says, "Never had a complaint about the facility, never had a complaint about it's operation."

Covanta hopes their 20 year track record of burning trash to make electricity is a much better option than landfills. Anything that can be recycled or that's dangerous is supposed to be removed before the trash arrives, but it's still checked one last time before it's burned at a very high temperature.

Facility Manager Scott Porter says, "The trash is combusted in a combustion process which is basically a huge area of step down ramps that push the trash forward while it's combusting and that heat is recovered in a boiling room where we turn the heat into steam and the steam that we generate is then sent to a steam turbine which turns the generator. We have a 9.4 megawatt turbine at the facility and once we turn that steam into electrical it's transported out to Northeast Utilities."

Covanta believes the the process is safe for the environment, and the plant has proven to be a safe for employees. OSHA, the federal agency, has just recognized Covanta for workplace safety.