The plant opened in 1985 as a solution to concerns of a national garbage crisis, and it now processes up to 2,250 tons of household waste a day. It has three trash-burning units that send heat to boilers creating up to 500,000 pounds of high-pressure steam per hour. Some of the steam goes toward generating energy, with a capacity of 64 megawatts of generation, and the rest goes into Veolia Energy's downtown steam loop — the same system that exploded under Eutaw Street last month.